Now chiefly dial. Forms: 1 lácan, 4 leyke, laiky, 4–6 laike, layke, 6, 9 laak, 8–9 laik, 4– lake. [A Com. Teut. reduplicative str. vb., OE. lácan, pa. t. léolc, léc = ON. leika, pa. t. lék (Sw. leka, Da. lege), Goth. laikan, pa. t. lailaik, MHG. leichen, pa. t. leichte, pa. pple. geleichen. The word seems in ME. to have been re-adopted in the Scandinavian form. Its currency is almost entirely northern, no forms with o being known. The inflexion has been weak since the 13th c.]
† 1. intr. To exert oneself, move quickly, leap, spring; hence, to fight. Obs.
Beowulf (Z.), 2848. Ða ne dorston ær dareðum lacan on hyra man-dryhtnes miclan þearfe.
a. 1000. Juliana, 674. Heliseus … leolc ofer laȝuflod longe hwile on swonrade.
c. 1205. Lay., 21270. Arður him læc to swa hit a liun weoren. Ibid., 28522. Hit læc toward hirede folc vnimete.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 9997. Thus þai laiket o þe laund the long day ouer.
† b. trans. To move quickly.
c. 1205. Lay., 29662. Up he læc þene staf Þat water þer after leop.
2. intr. To play, sport; occas. in amorous or obscene sense; dial. to take a holiday from work; to be out of work. Also with about, away.
c. 1300. Havelok, 950. The children … with him leykeden here fille.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 872. Laykez wyth hem as yow lyst & letez my gestes one.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. I. 187. And yf hym luste for to layke þanne loke we mowe.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 12734. This Clunestra … For lacke of hir lord laiked besyde.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxvi. 238. How þis losell laykis with his lorde.
1570. Levins, Manip., 198/15.
1599. T. Cutwode, Caltha Poet., Pref. (1815), A v. Let the lasses giue over laaking in the greene.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, 28. To Lake: to Play, a word common to all the North Country.
1803. R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball., 62. The peat-stack we us’d to lake roun ’ll be brunt ere this!
a. 1804. J. Mather, Songs (1862), 91. (Sheffield Gloss.). Why don’t these play-acting foak lake away?
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxiii. Any tidy lass … that … would not go laiking about to wakes and fairs.
1859. Mrs. Gaskell, Round the Sofa, II. 101. The men [in Westmoreland] occasionally going off laking, i.e. playing, i.e. drinking, for days together.
1892. Spectator, 16 April, 529/1. The Yorkshire word to signify playing, as generally understood, is ‘laking.’
† b. quasi-trans. To sport with, mock. Obs.
13[?]. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 1212. A! hou wimmen conne hit make Whan thai wil ani man lake!
† 3. refl. To amuse oneself, play. Obs.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 31. [He] layked him long while to lesten þat merþe.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3356. Þai hadden … burdes briȝte & bolde … to layky hem wan þay wolde.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1770. Se quat I send to þe, son þi-selfe with to laike.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., II. xiv. 1271. As this Queyne apon a day Hyr laykand in a medow lay.
