l8r
(SMS) later


lab&tyd
(SMS) life's a bitch and then you die


labile
[LAY-byl]
1. Open to change; apt or likely to change; adaptable.
2. Constantly or readily undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown; unstable.
Examples:
1) They are too open to the rest of the world, too labile, too prone to foreign influence. (Robert Hughes, "Goya")
2) Mifflin may not have been much more labile than the people around him, but he was undoubtedly more aware of his volatility. ("Leander, Lorenzo, and Castalio," Early American Literature, January 1, 1998)
3) Faber's prose is an amazingly labile instrument, wry and funny, never pretentious, capable of rendering the muck of a London street and the delicate hummingbird flights of thought with equal ease. (Lev Grossman, "The Lady Is a Tramp," Time, September 16, 2002)
4) They lock themselves in their studies and from the labile, rocking mass of thoughts and impressions they form books, which immediately become something final, irrevocable, as if frost had cut down the flowers. (Adam Zagajewski, "History's children," New Republic, December 2, 1991)
Etymology:
"Labile" derives from Late Latin "labilis", from Latin "labi" ("to slip").


labor of love

• a labor of love
• labor
• love

Something done for personal pleasure and not for money; roductive work performed voluntarily without material reward or compensation; work done not for money but for love or a sense of accomplishment.
Examples:
1) The book that he wrote was a labor of love and he doesn`t expect to make any money from it.
2) He didn't get paid for painting the nursing home. It was a labor of love.
History:
In the New Testament of the Bible there is a phrase about work done for pleasure without profit, "your work of faith and labor of love." The English expression "labor of love" became popular around the 17th century, when many people worked at something because they loved doing it and not for money. Also, "labor" and "love" both begin with the letter "l", and that alliteration helped make the expression easy to remember.


lachrymose

• tearful
• mournful
• lachrymal
• lacrimal

[LAK-ruh-mohs]
1. Given to shedding tears or weeping; suffused with tears.
Synonym: tearful
2. Causing or tending to cause tears.
Synonym: mournful
Examples:
1) At the farewell party on the boat, Joyce was surrounded by a lachrymose family. (Edna O'Brien, "She Was the Other Ireland," New York Times, June 19, 1988)
2) I promise to do my best, and if at any time my resolution lapses, pen me a few fierce vitriolic words and you shall receive by the next post a lachrymose & abject apology in my most emotional hand writing. (Rupert Brooke, letter to James Strachey, July 7, 1905)
3) The game is perpetuated by the sons in a sometimes vicious sibling rivalry that inevitably subsides into lachrymose reconciliation. (Arthur Gelb and Barbara Gelb, O'Neill: Life With Monte Cristo)
4) Meanwhile, a lachrymose new waltz, "After The Ball Is Over," was sweeping the nation. (Benjamin Welles, Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist)
5) The advertisements for the film portrayed it as a comedy, but the ending turned out to be surprisingly lachrymose.
Etymology, related words:
"Lachrymose" is from Latin "lacrimosus", from "lacrima" ("tear"). "Lachrymose" didn't appear in English until around 1727, but another closely related adjective can be traced all the way back to the 15th century. This earlier cousin, "lachrymal" (sometimes spelled "lacrimal", particularly in its scientific applications) is based in the realm of science rather than emotion. It is defined as "of, relating to, or being glands that produce tears" or "of, relating to, or marked by tears". On the other hand, "lachrymose" is associated with the strong feelings that often cause those tears to flow, or something that produces those feelings.



lackadaisical

• languid
• Lackaday
• alack the day
• lackadaisy
• alack
• day
• idle
• inattentive
• lazy
• lethargic

[lak-uh-DAY-zih-kul]
Lacking life, spirit, or zest Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless.
Synonyms: idle, inattentive, lazy, lethargic, languid.
Examples:
1) Drowsy from the heat and from fatigue, he dozed to the steady lackadaisical clips of the mule's shoes. (Patricia Powell, "The Pagoda")
2) There was an oddly lackadaisical inflection to his speech. A sense of merely going though the motions. (Lesley Hazleton, "Driving To Detroit")
3) The very title, Hours of Idleness, which the young lord affixed to his maiden volume, sufficiently indicated the lackadaisical spirit in which he came before the public. (J. F. A. Pyre, "Byron in Our Day," The Atlantic, April 1907)
4) The simple fact is, whether we admit it or not, there's never been an "intelligence" or "achievement" test on which the smart and industrious have not done better than the dumb and the lackadaisical. (Jonah Goldberg, "Stupid Aptitude Test," National Review, July 1, 2002)
5) Disgusted by his team's performance during their losing streak, the coach gave a lecture scolding them for their lackadaisical play.
Etymology, related words:
"Lackadaisical" comes from the expression "lackadaisy", a variation of "lackaday", itself a shortening of "alack the (or a) day!"
We've all had days when nothing seemed to go right. When folks had one of those days back in the 17th century, they'd cry "Lackaday" to express their sorrow and disappointment. "Lackaday" was a shortened form of the expression "alack the day." In the mid- 1700s, "lackadaisical" was coined through addition of the suffix "-ical." The word "lackadaisy" also saw usage around that time as an interjection similar to "lackaday," and this word, though never as prevalent as "lackaday," might have influenced the coinage of "lackadaisical."


laconic

• concise
• succinct
• pithy

[luh-KON-ik]
Using or marked by the use of a minimum of words; brief and pithy; brusque.
Synonyms: concise, succinct, pithy
Examples:
1) Readers' reports range from the laconic to the verbose. (Bernard Stamler, "A Brooklyncentric View of Life," New York Times, February 28, 1999)
2) In the laconic language of the sheriff department's report, there was "no visible sign of life." (David Wise, "Cassidy's Run")
3) There was one tiny photograph of him at a YMCA camp plus a few laconic and uninformative entries in a soldier's log from the war year, 1917-18. (Edward W. Said, "Out of Place: A Memoir")
Etymology:
"Laconic" comes, via Latin, from Greek Lakonikos, "of or relating to a Laconian or Spartan," hence "terse," in the manner of the Laconians.
Trivia: Laconia was an ancient region of southern Greece in the southeastern Peloponnesus; Sparta was the capital. Its people were noted for being warlike and disciplined, and also for the brevity of their speech.


lagniappe
[LAN-yap]
A small gift given a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase; broadly: something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.
Example:
The Garcia family's store always has the best holiday-themed lagniappes; this year with a $20 purchase you receive a hand-painted snowman figurine.
History, more examples:
"We picked up one excellent word," wrote Mark Twain in "Life on the Mississippi" (1883), "a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word - 'lagniappe'.... It is Spanish - so they said." Twain encapsulates the history of "lagniappe" quite nicely. English speakers learned the word from French-speaking Louisianians, but they in turn had adapted it from the American Spanish word "la napa." Twain went on to describe how New Orleanians completed shop transactions by saying "Give me something for lagniappe", to which the shopkeeper would respond with "a bit of liquorice-root, ... a cheap cigar or a spool of thread". It took a while for "lagniappe" to catch on throughout the country, but by the mid-20th century, New Yorkers and New Orleanians alike were familiar with this "excellent word".


laissez-faire

• laissez
• faire
• laissez faire, laissez passer
• laissez passer
• passer

[leh-say-FAIR]
1. A doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights.
Example:
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president, was a firm believer in small government and the principles of laissez-faire.
2. A philosophy or practice characterized by a usually deliberate abstention from direction or interference especially with individual freedom of choice and action.
Etymology, more meanings:
The French phrase "laissez-faire" literally means "allow to do," with the idea being "let people do as they choose," or simply "leave things alone." The origins of "laissez-faire" are associated with the Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French economists who believed that government policy should not interfere with the operation of natural economic laws. The actual coiner of the phrase may have been French economist Vincent de Gournay, or it may have been Francois Quesnay, considered the group's founder and leader. The original phrase was "laissez faire, laissez passer," with the second part meaning "let (things) pass." "Laissez-faire," which first showed up in an English context in 1825, is still most often a term of economics, but it is also used in broader contexts in which a "hands-off" or "anything-goes" policy or attitude is adopted.


lambaste
[lam-BAYST]
1. To give a thrashing to; to beat severely.
2. To scold sharply; to attack verbally; to berate.
Examples:
1. . . . Someone who spends most of his time lambasting his opponents for supporting the wrong ideas and the wrong courses of action. (Richard Bernstein, "A Conservative Who's Outgrown His Pigeonhole", New York Times, August 11, 1995)
2. Evening after evening, Hiro and his teammates were lambasted for their failures and shortcomings. (Noboru Yoshimura and Philip Anderson, "Inside the Kaisha Michael")
3. Porter, a leading Harvard business guru, offered further ammunition to critics of Europe's economic management, lambasting continental business culture for failing to promote entrepreneurship. (Gary Duncan, "Euro 'likely to mean single government' ", Times (London), January 27, 2001)
4. Eventually, at a 1965 conference of African and Asian revolutionaries in Algiers, he exploded, publicly lambasting the Russian leaders as "accomplices to imperialist exploitation". (Peter Canby, "Poster Boy for the Revolution", New York Times, May 18, 1997)
Etymology:
"Lambaste" is perhaps from "lam" ("to beat soundly; to thrash") + "baste" ("to beat vigorously").


lambent
[LAM-buhnt]
1. Playing lightly on or over a surface; flickering; as, "a lambent flame; lambent shadows."
2. Softly bright or radiant; luminous; as, "a lambent light."
3. Light and brilliant; marked by lightness or brilliance, especially of expression, as, "a lambent style; lambent wit."
Examples:
1) I have an image in my mind of the soaring vault rising and disappearing into the gray-white silence, the niches in the salt walls where the saints dwelled, the few points of lambent gold glimmering feebly on the altar. (Richard O'Mara, "The Unapologetic Tourist," New York Times, November 21, 1999)
2) There, in the lambent glow of flashlight or lantern, you find the fragile rock walls covered with thousand-year-old paintings illustrating the life of the Buddha and his teachings. (Michael O'Sullivan, "The Cave as Canvas: Hidden Images of Worship Along the Silk Road," Washington Post, January 4, 2002)
3) Across the plaza, the lambent moonlight cast shadows on a former convent's facade of saints and angels. (Stephen Benz, "Our Mailman in Havana," Washington Post, November 19, 2000)
4) She wanted to tell him how she felt and feel that lambent look that was better than sunshine, his look of offering all that was in him. (Anna Shapiro, "The Scourge," USA Today, July 23, 2001)
5) It [the opera] is also sumptuously orchestrated, gracefully written for the singers, well-suited to the stage action, deeply felt yet tasteful in expression, and, at its best, a lambent, shimmering creation, full of beauty and nuance. (Tim Page, "Appealing 'Dangerous Liaisons,'" Newsday, September 12, 1994)
6) On a warm, clear night, Roger and Theresa strolled through the park beneath the lambent glow of the moon.
History, more examples:
Fire is frequently associated with lapping or licking imagery: flames are often described as "tongues" that "lick." "Lambent," which first appeared in English in the 17th century, is a part of this tradition, coming from "lambens," the present participle of the Latin verb "lambere," meaning "to lick." In its earliest uses, "lambent" meant "playing lightly over a surface," "gliding over," or "flickering." These uses were usually applied to flames or light, and by way of that association, the term eventually came to be used to describe things with a radiant or brilliant glow, as Alexander Pope used it in his 1717 poem "Eloisa to Abelard": "Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry ray, Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day."


lamia
[LAY-mee-uh]
A female demon; vampire.
Example:
In his latest horror flick, a seductive lamia revengefully preys upon the young men of a suburban town, who, it turns out, were responsible for her brutal death.
History:
According to Greek mythology, Lamia was a queen of Libya who was beloved by Zeus. When Hera, Zeus's wife, robbed her of her children from this union, Lamia killed every child she could get into her power. Stories were also told of a fiend named Lamia who, in the form of a beautiful woman, seduced young men in order to devour them and who also sucked the blood of children. Such nightmarish legends uncannily compelled poet John Keats, and many other writers before and after him, to write their own tales of Lamia, which still haunt and terrify those souls who dare read them.


lampoon
[lam-POON]
To make the subject of a lampoon; ridicule.
Example:
A local cartoonist lampooned the mayor, portraying him as a slow, drawling bumpkin.
History:
"Lampoon" can be a noun or a verb. The noun "lampoon" (meaning "satire," or, specifically, "a harsh satire usually directed against an individual") was first used in English in 1645. The verb followed about a decade later. The words come from the French "lampon," and probably originated with "lampons," the first person plural imperative of "lamper" ("to guzzle"). "Lampons!" (meaning "Let us guzzle!") is a frequent refrain in 17th-century French satirical poems.


land of Nod

• the land of Nod
• land
• Nod

To sleep.
Examples:
1) We were fast going off to the land of Nod, when - bang, bang, bang - on the scuttle, and "All hands, reef topsails, ahoy!" started us out of our berths. (Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before The Mast)
2) For the jet-lagged insomniac, here are a few suggestions of what to do in Manhattan once the last bar has chucked you out and the land of nod seems further away than the night bus to Camberwell. (William Hide, "The night shift", The Guardian, February 24, 2001)
Etymology:
Land of Nod is a pun on the biblical place-name, the country to which Cain journeyed after slaying Abel. (See Genesis, 4:16.)



languid
[LANG-gwid]
1. Drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion.
Synonyms: weak; weary; heavy.
2. Promoting or indicating weakness or heaviness.
3. Slow; lacking vigor or force.
Examples:
1) Deliberately languid, slow to rise to a dignified height, his handsomely graying wavy hair perfectly combed, Floyd sits most of the day with his long legs sprawled under his table. (William S. McFeely, "Proximity to Death")
2) . . . in the languid heat of Rome, late summer, late afternoon. (Matthew Stadler, "Allan Stein")
3) With their strength, grace, and endurance, [they] move about naturally, freely, at a tempo determined by climate and tradition, somewhat languid, unhurried, knowing one can never achieve everything in life anyway, and besides, if one did, what would be left over for others? (Ryszard Kapuscinski, "The Shadow of the Sun", translated by Klara Glowczewska)
Etymology:
"Languid" comes from Latin "languere" - "to become faint or weak; to droop; to be inactive".


lapidary
[LAP-uh-dair-ee]
1. Of or pertaining to the art of cutting stones or engraving on them.
2. Engraved in stone.
3. Of or pertaining to the refined or terse style associated with inscriptions on monumental stone.
4. One who cuts, polishes, and engraves precious stones.
5. A dealer in precious stones.
Examples:
1) Here, disgusted by venality and intrigue, the retired courtier would come to compose lapidary maxims and wise but sympathetic letters to ardent youth. (Michael Foley, "Getting Used to Not Being Remarkable")
2) If I asked how long it took to simmer the meat sauce, Emilia would answer with a grumble and her usual lapidary phrase: "Quanto basta. As long as it takes." (Patrizia Chen, "Rosemary and Bitter Oranges")
3) The settings for Jim Crace's fiction are always evoked with superb, lapidary precision. (Caroline Moore, "The timid Don Juan," Sunday Telegraph, August 31, 2003)
4) Nor is he dismissive of the benefits of modern technology; but a constant theme, like a mounting basso continuo in his story, is the destructive modern emergence of "the cult of the quantitative method known as scientism, physicalism, and reductionism," leading to what C. S. Lewis called in a lapidary phrase "the abolition of man." (M. D. Aeschliman, "Faithful Reason," National Review, September 16, 2002)
5) These writers have long and eloquently regretted the latter's lapsed reputation and the unavailability (until now) of his work, pointing to his plain, unobtrusive prose and to his bleak take on life (traits that can be traced, in their view, to Hemingway's lapidary sentences and to his Lost Generation pessimism). (Lee Siegel, "The Easter Parade," Harper's Magazine, July 2001)
Etymology:
The word is from Latin "lapidarius" - "pertaining to stone," from "lapis, lapid-" - "stone."


largess
[lar-ZHES; lar-JES; LAR-jes]
1. Generous giving (as of gifts or money), often accompanied by condescension.
2. Gifts, money, or other valuables so given.
3. Generosity; liberality.
Examples:
1) Four years after her marriage she exclaimed giddily over her father-in-law's largess: "He has given Waldorf the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a birthday present!" (Stacy Schiff, "Otherwise Engaged," New York Times, March 19, 2000)
2) The recipients of Johnson's largesse were understandably indifferent to what propelled him. (Robert Dallek, "Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973")
3) A swelling chorus has arisen recently to complain that the PRI has been up to its old tricks, showering voters with largesse (ranging from washing machines to bicycles and cash). ("Mexico's vote," Economist, June 24, 2000)
Etymology:
"Largess" is from Old French "largesse" ("largeness, generosity"), from "large", from Latin "largus" ("plentiful, generous").


lassitude
[LASS-uh-tood; LASS-uh-tyood]
Lack of vitality or energy.
Synonyms:
Weariness; listlessness.
Examples:
1) The feverish excitement ... had given place to a dull, regretful lassitude. (George Eliot, "Romola")
2) A long exercise of the mental powers induces a remarkable lassitude of the whole body. (Edmund Burke, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful")
3) She felt aged, in deep lassitude and numb despair, and regretted not marrying Mai Dong before he left for the front. (Ha Jin, "Waiting")
Etymology:
"Lassitude" is from Latin "lassitudo", from "lassus" ("weary, exhausted").


lateral quickness

• lateral
• quickness

The ability to move quickly from side to side.
Example:
A goalee in football (soccer) or in ice hockey has to have lateral quickness to protect the entire opening of the goal.

latitudinarian
1. (adj.) Having or expressing broad and tolerant views, especially in religious matters.
(noun) 2. A person who is broad-minded and tolerant; one who displays freedom in thinking, especially in religious matters. 3. (often capitalized) A member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II, who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed.
Examples:
1) More was nothing like his supposed example, the gently latitudinarian Cicero, for instance: Cicero's philosophical and religious dialogues (as opposed to his legal and political speeches, of course) often read as if he delighted in being contradicted, while More's are spittingly conclusive. (Caleb Crain, "American Sympathy")
2) . . . the optimism preached in England by latitudinarians trying to soften the Puritan concepts of an inscrutable, cruel God and an abject, fallen humanity. (James Wood, "The Broken Estate")
Etymology:
"Latitudinarian" comes from Latin "latitudo", "latitudin-", "latitude" (from "latus" - "broad, wide") + the suffix "-arian".


laudable

• laudatory
• commendable

[LAW-duh-bul]
Worthy of praise.
Synonym: commendable
Examples:
1) Becoming a doctor is a laudable goal, but Kelly doesn't seem to realize how much work and stress it will take to accomplish it.
2) Her first answer was laudable - she wrote that yes, she would remain engaged to a man who fell seriously ill subsequent to the engagement. (Enid Nemy, "Metropolitan Diary," New York Times, January 11, 1999)
3) The second sense in which we are feminist researchers comes from our belief that equity between boys and girls, men and women, is a laudable goal. (Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins (editors), "From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games")
Etymology, related words, more examples:
Both "laudable" and "laudatory" derive ultimately from Latin "laudabilis", from "laudare" ("to praise"), from "laud-, laus," meaning "praise." "Laudable" and "laudatory" differ in meaning, however, and usage commentators warn against using them interchangeably. "Laudable" means "deserving praise, praiseworthy," as in "laudable efforts to help the disadvantaged." "Laudatory" means "giving praise" or "expressing praise," as in "a laudatory book review." People occasionally use "laudatory" in place of "laudable," but this use is not considered standard.


laudanum

• tincture of opium
• tincture
• opium

Solution containing opium
Synonym: tincture of opium
Example:
During his absence from home one night, she died of an overdose of laudanum. (Cecil, Robert. "The masks of death". - Lewes, East Sussex: The Book Guild Ltd, 1991)
History:
Paracelsus coined it to name a medicine that contained opium, gold, and crushed pearls (among other things); eventually it came to denote any tincture of opium. Laudanum also contains alcohol, which is what makes it a tincture. The word "laudanum" perhaps derives from the Latin "laudere" ("to praise"), or from the Latin "ladanum" ("a resin").


laugh all the way to the bank

• laugh
• all the way
• bank
• way

1. To gloat over making money. 2. To make money when others thought it was not possible.
Example:
The phrase "to laugh all the way to the bank" often refers to a sportsman who loses a match, or to a show-business person who gives a poor performance, but who still cynically collects a thumping fee.
(See: "Cry all the way to the bank")

laugh out of the other side of one's mouth

• laugh out of the other side of your mouth
• laugh out of the other side of the mouth
• laugh out of
• the other side of
• mouth
• laugh out
• other side
• laugh
• other
• side

To be made to feel sorrow, annoyance, or disappointment after you felt happy; to cry at a change in luck after experiencing some happiness.
Example:
Once the news get out that Sid bought votes to win the election, he'll be laughing out
of the other side of his mouth.
History:
This saying was being used in England in the 17th century. This expression might not seem to make much sense. When a person laughs, he or she does it from both sides of
the mouth. You wouldn't laugh at all if you didn't feel happy. The key words in the phrase
are "other side". The other side of happiness is sadness, and the idiom suggests that by
laughing on the other or wrong side of your mouth, of face, your fortune has gone bad and your moment of happiness is over.

lave
[LAYV]
1. To wash, bathe.
2. To flow along or against.
3. To pour.
Example:
There are few traces of man's hand to be seen. The water laves the shore as it did a thousand years ago. (Henry David Thoreau, "Walden")
History, more examples:
"Lave" is a simple, monosyllabic word that magically makes the mundane act of washing poetic. Shakespeare used it in "The Taming of the Shrew", when Gremio assured the father of his beloved Bianca that she would have "basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands." And in Charles Dickens' "The Old Curiosity Shop", Nell "laved her hands and face, and cooled her feet before setting forth to walk again." The poetry of "lave" is also heard when describing water washing against the shore, as in our example sentence, or even the pouring of water: "He... laved a few cool drops upon his brow" (John Lockhart, "Reginald Dalton"). The word, as well as "lavatory," comes from Latin "lavare," meaning "to wash."


lay an egg

• lay
• egg
• goose egg
• goose
• duck's egg
• duck
• lay a goose egg

1. To give an embarrassing performance.
2. To fail to win the interest or favor of an audience.
3. (Canadian and American slang) To make a joke.
4. To score a zero.
Examples:
1) Although he was supposed to be a good magician, his performance was terrible and it laid an egg with the audience.
2) Who told Sally she could sing? She really laid an egg at the talent show.
History:
This idiom comes from Britain, where cricket has been a popular game for centuries. If a team failed to score a single point, people said it had laid a duck's egg, an object that has the same shape as the O on the scoreboard. In the United States, toward the end of the 1800s, the saying "laid an egg" was applied to performers in vaudeville shows who bombed in front of the audience. In baseball slang, the expression for "zero" is "goose egg," and to get no score is to "lay a goose egg." Today you can "lay an egg" if you do anything that fails totally because nobody likes it.


lay one's cards on the table

• lay your cards on the table
• lay
• card
• cards
• table

To speak frankly, be honest, not hold back; to let someone know one's position openly, deal honestly; to reveal all the facts openly and honestly; to reveal one's purpose and plans.
Examples:
1) He laid his cards on the table during the meeting to dispose of the excess inventory.
2) The mayor laid the cards on the table about his secret campaign funds.
History:
The idiom comes from playing cards. There are many games in which players have to put their cards on the table face up to show what cards they have been holding. When that happens, there are no secrets, the truth is out.


lead by the nose

• lead smb. by the nose
• lead you by the nose
• lead by
• lead
• nose

1. To control, have the ability to rule over; to make or persuade someone to do anything you want; to dominate someone.
2. To conceal one's true motives from esp. by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end.
Examples:
1) My sister has been leading her husband by the nose since they got married.
2) He bamboozled his professors into thinking that he knew the subject well.
3) My grandfather thinks he's boss, but everyone knows that Grandma really leads him by the nose.
History:
Animals, like cattle in the field or trained bears in a circus, are often led about by a rope attached to a ring in their noses. Phrases about being led by one's nose first appeared in the Bible (Isaiah 37:29) and later in English about A.D. 170. By the 1500s the saying was carried over to people who were controlled by other people.

lead-pipe cinch
(Amer. slang) certain of the result, a foregone conclusion Example: The Jets are a lead pipe cinch to win the game. They're better. Etymology: The figurative sense of "cinch" is recorded from the 1880s on. Generally, it's the piece of a lead pipe that might have been used to tighten a strap. Maybe, the origin is in the plumbing trade itself, on the basis that there might have been some device that held, or cinched, pieces of pipe together. It might have been a version of a device sometimes known as a strap wrench, which is used when the jaws of a standard monkey wrench would damage the item being worked on. In all cases, "cinch" came from the saddle-girth meaning of the word, which itself had been borrowed from Spanish "cincha" in the 1860s. A saddle that had been tightly cinched was secure, so something that was a cinch was a safe or sure thing, an idea which developed into the slang sense of something that was a certainty. "Lead-pipe cinch" suddenly appears in the early 1890s. It's obvious enough that a lead-pipe cinch is one up on the common or garden variety of cinch, so that "lead-pipe" here is what grammarians call an intensifier. But why should it be so? This is where we part company with the facts and go drifting off on the wayward currents of surmise and supposition. Robert Chapman's "Dictionary of American Slang" suggested it is because a lead pipe is easily bent, "in case one has bet on such a feat". Eric Partridge thought it came about through the effectiveness of a length of lead pipe as a weapon. Jonathon Green argues it is the solidity of the lead pipe that is most important. Unlike many modern urban folk, in the 1890s everyone who used the phrase knew exactly what a cinch was in its literal sense. So "lead-pipe cinch" had to resonate somehow with that. Jonathon Lighter, in the "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang", points out that there was a brief flowering of another sense, that of having an especially firm grip on something. The idea was presumably that if a leather cinch was effective, one made of lead would be even more so, or that one's grip on lead pipe could be firmer than on a leather strap.

learned

• learn

1. [le:nd] (the past tense of "learn") - acquired by learning or experience, as: learned behavior; a learned response.
Example:
I learned to drive at the age of 16.
2. [le:nid] - erudite, well read, broadly educated, directed toward scholars; having or showing much knowledge, as: learned professions, learned books, periodicals, societies.
Example:
Someone with knowledge in many areas of science and humanities is said to be learned.

leatherneck

• leather neck
• leather
• neck

Marines are called leathernecks.
Etymology:
The name came from the days of sailing ships, when marines were used as the boarding party to fight enemy ships hand to hand. They wore high thick leather collars to protect their necks from saber slashes.

leathernecks

• jarheads
• leatherneck
• jarhead
• leather-necks
• jar-heads
• leather-neck
• jar-head
• leather