Chiefly Sc. Forms: 4–5 los(e)yn, lozeyn, loysyn, 6 losan(e, losin, 7 losien, lossen, 9 losen, 8–9 lozen. [? a. OF. *loseigne (once loseingne), var. of losange LOZENGE sb.]
† 1. Cookery. ? A thin cake of pastry. Obs.
c. 1390[?]. Form of Cury (1780), 21. Take obleys oþer wafrous [wafrons] in stede of lozeyns and cowche in dysshes. Ibid., 46, 61, 62.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 40. Lay þer in Þy loseyns abofe þe chese with wynne … Þose loysyns er harde to make in fay.
† 2. A lozenge-shaped figure. Obs.
1542. Inv. R. Wardr. (1815), 60. Item ane uther dyamont ground oure with losanis ennamelit with the freir knott.
1593. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1816), IV. 48/2. On the vther syde ane losane with ane thrissill on euery nuke.
3. A (lozenge-shaped) pane of glass.
1665. Sir J. L. Fountainhall, Jrnl. (1900), 114. One of his servantes brook a lossen.
a. 1813. A. Wilson, 2nd Ep. to J. Dobie, Poet. Wks. (1846), 51. While rains are blatt’ring frae the south, And down the lozens seeping.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. i. And who taught me to pin a losen, head a bicker, and hold the bannets? Alan once more.
1865. C. S. Grahame, Mystifications, 16. Lord Gillies was reminded of the time when he was an ill prettie laddie, and of breaking the lozens of one of her windows.
1896. N. Munro, Lost Pibroch (1902), 40. The window-lozens winked with the light of big peat-fires within.
b. transf. A glass of a pair of spectacles.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge, xi. (1842), 200. Auld Durie Squake … caught such a bash on the nose that baith the lozens were dang out of his barnacles.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. or adj. ? Embroidery with lozenge patterns.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 19. Sic losin sarkis, so mony glengoir markis Within this land was nevir hard nor sene.
1507. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1901), III. 253. Ane gret losin doublat for the king.
1546. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 239. Tua losin sarkis.
b. Comb., as † lozen-wise adv.
1625. in Rymer, Fœdera, XVIII. 236. Dyamonds cutt lozen wise.
Hence Lozened a. = LOZENGED. Also Lozenless a. rare.
1770. Bp. Forbes, Jrnl. (1886), 306. A circular Window, lozened by Arches of polished Stone meeting in the Centre.
1898. N. Munro, John Splendid, xiv. The place lay tenantless and melancholy,… the windows lozenless.
