Part 612

Lav"ish (lv"sh), a. [Akin to E. lave to lade out; cf. AS. gelafian to refresh, G. laben.] 1. Expending or bestowing profusely; profuse; prodigal; as, lavish of money; lavish of praise.

2. Superabundant; excessive; as, lavish spirits.

Let her have needful, but not lavish, means.

Shak.

Syn. -- Profuse; prodigal; wasteful; extravagant; exuberant; immoderate. See Profuse.

Lav"ish, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lavished (-sht); p. pr. & vb. n. Lavishing.] To expend or bestow with profusion; to use with prodigality; to squander; as, to lavish money or praise.

Lav"ish*er (-r), n. One who lavishes.

Lav"ish*ly, adv. In a lavish manner.

Lav"ish*ment (-ment), n. The act of lavishing.

Lav"ish*ness, n. The quality or state of being lavish.

||La*vœ"si*um (?), n. [NL., fr. Lavoisier, the celebrated French ||chemist.] (Chem.) A supposed new metallic element. It is said to have ||been discovered in pyrites, and some other minerals, and to be of a ||silver-white color, and malleable. || { La*volt" (?), La*vol"ta (?), } n. [It. la volta the turn, turning, whirl. Cf. Volt of a horse, Volta.] An old dance, for two persons, being a kind of waltz, in which the woman made a high spring or bound. Shak.

La*vol`ta*teer" (?), n. A dancer of the lavolta.

Lav"our (?), n. A laver. [Obs.] Chaucer.

La"vrock (?), n. Same as Laverock.

Law (l), n. [OE. lawe, laghe, AS. lagu, from the root of E. lie: akin to OS. lag, Icel. lög, Sw. lag, Dan. lov; cf. L. lex, E. legal. A law is that which is laid, set, or fixed; like statute, fr. L. statuere to make to stand. See Lie to be prostrate.] 1. In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power acts.

A law may be universal or particular, written or unwritten, published or secret. From the nature of the highest laws a degree of permanency or stability is always implied; but the power which makes a law, or a superior power, may annul or change it.

These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made.

Lev. xxvi. 46.

The law of thy God, and the law of the King.

Ezra vii. 26.

As if they would confine the Interminable . . . Who made our laws to bind us, not himself.

Milton.

His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.

Cowper.

2. In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral nature.

3. The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part of Scripture where it is written, in distinction from the gospel; hence, also, the Old Testament.

What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law . . . But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Rom. iii. 19, 21.