Now chiefly poet. Forms: 1 lafian, ʓelafian, 2–3 lavin, 7 Sc. lawe, 4– lave. [Two distinct formations appear to have coalesced—(1) OE. had lafian to wash by affusion, to pour (water), corresponding formally to MDu., Du. laven, OHG. labôn (MHG., mod.G. laben) to refresh; cf. OHG. laba, mod.G. labe refreshment. By some scholars the OE., Du. and Ger. words are considered to represent a WGer. adoption of L. lavāre to wash. This view involves some difficulty, as the numerous OHG. examples refer to refreshment by food, drink, or warmth, so that the assumed primary sense ‘to wash,’ if it ever existed, must have been quite forgotten. The L. origin, however, accounts well for the senses of the OE. word, which perh. may be only accidentally similar in form to the continental words. (2) In ME. the representative of the OE. vb. blended indistinguishably with the vb. a. F. laver (= Pr., Sp., Pg. lavar, It. lavare):—L. lavāre = Gr. λούειν, f. OAryan root *lou- to wash (whence LATHER).]
1. trans. To wash, bathe.
Beowulf, 2722 (Gr.). Þeʓn unʓemete till winedryhten his wætere ʓelafede.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 48. Lafa þin heafod mid do swa oft swa þe þearf sy.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 145. Hie his fet lauede mid hire hote teres.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 337. She was anone with water laved.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 350. Basons, and ewers, to laue her dainty hands.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 175.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 159. Who could not endure the liquid test, but were soon laved into a ridiculous aspect.
1725. Pope, Odyss., VI. 44. The wave, Where their fair vests Phæacian virgins lave.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 181. Tumultuous soon they plunge into the Stream, There lave their reeking Sides.
1827–35. Willis, Leper, 152. He took a little water in His hand And laved the sufferer’s brow.
1858. Neale, Bernard de M. (1865), 35. Who … Bore with me in defilement And from defilement laved.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 162. Now in waters clear thy feet like ivory laving.
fig. 1605. Shaks., Macb., III. ii. 33. Wee must laue Our Honors in these flattering streames.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xv. And when the midnight moon should lave Her forehead in the silver wave.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. ii. In those bitter tears, childhood itself was laved from her soul for ever.
b. intr. for refl. To bathe. lit. and fig.
1701. Cibber, Love makes Man, II. ii. Happy he that … unconfin’d may lave and wanton there.
1704. Pope, Windsor For., 209. In her chaste current oft the goddess laves.
1801. Foster, in Life & Corr. (1846), I. 129. To lave in the stream, the tide of deeper sentiments.
1811. Miss Mitford, in Life, I. v. 129. The calm lake … Where the young cygnets lave.
† c. To lave a (= with): to be bathed in or covered with (blood, sweat). Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 7489. He swonc i þon fehte Þat al he lauede asweote [c. 1275 leþerede a swote].
a. 1300. Judas, in Rel. Ant., I. 144. He drou hymselve bi the cop, that al it lavede a blode.
2. trans. Of a river, a body of water: To wash against, to flow along or past.
1623. trans. Favine’s Theat. Hon., II. i. 67. For this River … commeth to laue the Towne of Namure.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., cliii. Guns … Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves.
1704. Addison, Italy (1733), 129. The bord’ring Ocean laves Her silent Coast.
a. 1717. Parnell, Night-Piece on Death, 20. A place of graves, whose wall the silent water laves.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XXI. 318. The flood, Jove’s offspring, laved his shoulders.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, V. viii. He leant against a stranded boat,… And counted every rippling wave, As higher yet her sides they lave.
1859. Capern, Ball. & Songs, 47. Where Torridge laves its banks of green.
1887. Spectator, 30 July, 1016/2. The shire is laved by a sea teeming with fish.
absol. 1808. Scott, Marm., III. x. There, through the summer day, Cool streams are laving.
3. To pour out with or as with a ladle; to ladle. Also absol. Const. † in, into, on, upon.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 124. Hat wæter lafa on.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., xxv. 72. Ihesu,… The deu of grace upon me lave.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 607. He lauez hys gyftes as water of dyche.
a. 1400. Sir Perc., 2250. Thay wolde not lett long thone, Bot lavede in hir with a spone.
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Open. (1677), 24. This being done lave and bounce it [the honey and water] very well and often.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 190. The Lead being melted … is laved into the Pan.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymns Evang., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 81. The Saint … on his Head the hallow’d Water lav’d.
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, VI. i. (1842), 350. He … laved a few cool drops upon his brow.
1862. Macm. Mag., April, 519. Lave the water … in slight handfuls … gently over the head and face.
† b. intr. To run, stream. Obs.
c. 1425. Festivals Ch., 220, in Leg. Rood (1871), 217. Dropes rede as ripe cherrees, þat fro his flesshe gan lave.
† 4. trans. To draw (water) out or up with a bucket, ladle or scoop; to bale. Also with out, up, with complement, and absol. Obs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 154. Mony ladde þer forth-lep to laue & to kest, Scopen out the scaþel water.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. metr. xii. (E.E.T.S.), 107. [Orpheus] spak and song in wepynge alle þat euer he hadde resceyued and laued oute of þe noble welles of hys modir calliope.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 415. Þat lorde was woned to … lave up water of pitts.
1458. in Turner, Dom. Archit., III. 41. With xi. laborers lavyng at onys.
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 471. Thow fylde faster than fyftensum mycht lawe.
1601. W. Parry, Trav. Sir A. Sherley, 6. To laue water out of this rotten boate.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. IV. vii. (1651), 167. When I have laved the sea dry, thou shalt understand the mystery of the Trinity.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 11 Oct. As we were weary with pumping and laving out the water.
a. 1700. Dryden, trans. Ovid’s Met., XI. Ceyx & Alcyone, 109. A fourth, with Labour, laves Th’ intruding Seas, and Waves ejects on Waves.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 13. It were Folly and unreasonable Charge … to Lave, or fill 20 or 30 Tubs of Water per hour.
transf. 1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 5. It [a storm of wind] was yet so violent, that it laved water out of the River Cherwell, and cast it quite over the Bridge at Magdalen College.
