Also 9 laso, lazie, lazo. [Sp. lazo (in America pronounced la·so) = OF. laz: see LACE sb.]
1. A long rope of untanned hide, from 10 to 30 yards in length, having at the end a noose to catch cattle and wild horses; used chiefly in Spanish America.
1768. J. Byron, Narr. Patagonia (ed. 2), 221. The laço is a long thong of leather, at the end of which they made a sliding noose.]
1808. Narr. Exped. Gen. Craufurd, II. viii. 189. Numbers of these fellows, with the lazie, hovered about us.
1835. W. Irving, Tour Prairies, xix. The coil of cordage … is called a lariat, and answers to the laso of South America.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., xxv. (1891), 356. Measuring his distance … as nicely as if he were throwing his lasso.
1879. Beerbohm, Patagonia, v. 66. Before it could recover Garcia’s lasso whizzed through the air and lighted on its neck.
2. Mil. = lasso-harness.
1847. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (ed. 4), 167. The first time they were required to draw by means of the Lasso.
1868. Regul. & Ord. Army, § 614. Ten Men per Troop … are to be equipped with the tackle of the Lasso.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lasso-man; lasso-like adj.; lasso-cell, one of the urticating cells of the Cœlenterata, which eject the contained thread in the manner of a lasso; lasso-harness, a kind of girth placed round a cavalry horse, with a lasso or long rope attached, for use in drawing guns, etc., as an assistance to the draught-horses.
1865. Agassiz, Seaside Stud. Nat. Hist., 18. The *lasso-cells are very formidable weapons.
1885. C. F. Holder, Marvels Anim. Life, 25. The beautiful sea-anemone … covered in many parts by lasso-cells that hurl out sharp, poisonous darts.
1847. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (ed. 4), 166. *Lasso Harness consists of a brown leather circingle, and one trace.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 58. The inner wall [of the thread-cell] is much stronger, having one extremity open and prolonged into a stout rather fusiform sheath which terminates in a long *lasso-like filament.
1808. Brig.-Gen. Craufurd, in Trial of Lieut.-Gen. J. Whitelocke, I. 196. *Lasso men employed in killing cattle for the troops.
