[ad. L. lōrum strap, thong; in sense a cf. F. lore.]
† 1. A strap, thong, rein. Obs. rare.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XIII. Notes (1632), 445 [trans. Iliad, XVIII. 479–80]. First forg’d a strong and ample shield…: round about he threw Three radiant rings (a siluer lore behind).
1636. R. Griffin, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 52. Stately coursers … champe their scorned Lores, Trample the groaning earth.
2. Nat. Hist. A strap-like appendage or surface in certain animals: a. in insects a horny appendage in the mouth of certain Hymenoptera, upon which the mentum or chin is carried (also in quasi-L. form lora); b. in birds, a space between the eye and the side of the superior mandible, sometimes naked; c. in snakes, a region between the eye and the nostril, sometimes covered by certain plates called lorals.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 367. Lora (the Lora), a corneous angular machine observable in the mouth of some insects, upon the intermediate angle of which the Mentum sits.
1828. Fleming, Hist. Brit. Anim., 132. Horned Grebe … Lores crimson.
1837–43. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, I. 97. The black hairs on the lore, or space between the base of the beak and the eye.
1890. Coues, Field & Gen. Ornithol., II. 145. The next commonest [form of head-nakedness] is definite bareness of the lores, as in all herons and grebes.
