Part 159

Light year. (Astron.) The distance over which light can travel in a year's time; -- used as a unit in expressing stellar distances. It is more than 63,000 times as great as the distance from the earth to the sun.

Like, n. (Golf) The stroke which equalizes the number of strokes played by the opposing player or side; as, to play the like.

||Li"kin`, n. [Written also lekin.] [ Chin. li kin; li the thousandth part of a tael + kin money.] A Chinese provincial tax levied at many inland stations upon imports or articles in transit.

"Likin," which used to be regarded as illegal, as one of the many, "squeezes" imposed by the mandarins, is, in Jamieson's opinion, just as legal as any other form of taxation.

A. R. Colquhoun.

Lil"y, n. (Auction Bridge) A royal spade; -- usually in pl. See Royal spade, below.

{Lim"burg cheese, Lim"burg*er, n., Lim"burg*er cheese} (?). A soft cheese made in the Belgian province of Limburg (Limbourg), and usually not eaten until the curing has developed a peculiar and, to most people, unpleasant odor.

Lime"light`, n. (Theat.) That part of the stage upon which the limelight as cast, usually where the most important action is progressing or where the leading player or players are placed and upon which the attention of the spectators is therefore concentrated. Hence, consspicuous position before the public; as, politicians who are never happy except in the limelight.

Lim"er*ick (?), n. [Said to be from a song with the same verse construction, current in Ireland, the refrain of which contains the place name Limerick.] A nonsense poem of five anapestic lines, of which lines 1, 2, and 5 are of there feet, and rime, and lines 3 and 4 are of two feet, and rime; as --

There was a young lady, Amanda, Whose Ballades Lyriques were quite fin de Siècle, I deem But her Journal Intime Was what sent her papa to Uganda.

Li`mou*sine" (?), n. [Cf. F. limousine a kind of cloak, fr. Limousin, an old province in central France.] An automobile body with seats and permanent top like a coupé, and with the top projecting over the driver and a projecting front; also, an automobile with such a body.

{ Line"-up`, Line"up` } (?), n. The formation of football players before the start or a restart of play; hence (Colloq.), any arrangement of persons (rarely, of things), esp. when having a common purpose or sentiment; as, the line-up at a ticket-office window; the line-up of political factions.

||Lin`ge*rie (?), n. [F.] Linen goods collectively; linen underwear, esp. of women; the clothing of linen and cotton with its lace, etc., worn by a women.

Lin"gua Fran"ca. Any hybrid or other language used over a wide area as a common or commercial tongue among peoples of different speech.

Link (?), n. [See Linch.] 1. A hill or ridge, as a sand hill, or a wooded or turfy bank between cultivated fields, etc. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.]

2. A winding of a river; also, the ground along such a winding; a meander; -- usually in pl. [Scot.]

The windings or "links" of the Forth above and below Stirling are extremely tortuous.

Encyc. Brit.

3. pl. Sand hills with the surrounding level or undulating land, such as occur along the seashore, a river bank, etc. [Scot.]

Golf may be played on any park or common, but its original home is the "links" or common land which is found by the seashore, where the short close tuft, the sandy subsoil, and the many natural obstacles in the shape of bents, whins, sand holes, and banks, supply the conditions which are easential to the proper pursuit of the game.

Encyc. of Sport.

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4. pl. Hence, any such piece of ground where golf is played.

Links (?), n. [The pl. form of Link, but often construed as a sing.] A tract of ground laid out for the game of golf; a golfing green.

A second links has recently been opened at Prestwick, and another at Troon, on the same coast.

P. P. Alexander.

Lin"o*type (?), n. [See Line ; Type.] (Print.) (a) A kind of typesetting machine which produces castings, each of which corresponds to a line of separate types. By pressing upon keys like those of a typewriter the matrices for one line are properly arranged; the stereotype, or slug, is then cast and planed, and the matrices are returned to their proper places, the whole process being automatic. (b) The slug produced by the machine, or matter composed in such lines. -- Lin"o*typ`ist (#), n.

Li"on, n. -- Lion of Lucerne, a famous sculptured lion at Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Thorwaldsen and dedicated in 1821 as a memorial to the Swiss Guards who fell defending Louis XVI. in the attack of the mob on the Tuileries, Aug. 10, 1792. The animal, which is hewn out of the face of a rock, is represented as transfixed with a broken spear and dying, but still trying to protect with its paw a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis of France. -- Lion of St. Mark, a winged lion, the emblem of the evangelist Mark, especially that of bronze surmounting a granite column in the Piazzetta at Venice, and holding in its fore paws an open book representing St. Mark's Gospel. -- Lion of the North, Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632), King of Sweden, the hero of the Protestant faith in the Thirty Years' War.