Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  2. Any thing appendant to a larger writing.

  On the label of lead, the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul are impressed from the papal seal. Ayliffe’s Parergon.

  3. [In law.] A narrow slip of paper or parchment affixed to a deed or writing, in order to hold the appending seal. So also any paper, annexed by way of addition or explication to any will or testament, is called a label or codicil. Harris.

  God join’d my heart to Romeo’s; thou our hands;

  And ere this hand by thee to Romeo seal’d,

  Shall be the label to another deed,

  Or my true heart with treacherous revolt

  Turn to another, this shall slay them both. Shakespeare.

  Lábent. adj. [labens, Lat.] Sliding; gliding; slipping. Dict.

  Lábial. adj. [labialis, Latin.] Uttered by the lips.

  The Hebrews have assigned which letters are labial, which dental, and which guttural. Bacon’s Natural History.

  Some particular affection of sound in its passage to the lips, will seem to make some composition in any vowel which is labial. Holder’s Elements of Speech.

  Lábiated. adj. [labium, Latin.] Formed with lips. Lábiodental. adj. [labium and dentalis.] Formed or pronounced by the co-operation of the lips and teeth.

  The dental consonants are very easy; and first the labiodentals f, v, also the linguadentals th, dh. Hold. Elm. of Sp.

  Labórant. n.s. [laborans, Lat.] A chemist. Not in use.

  I can shew you a sort of fixt sulphur, made by an industrious laborant. Boyle.

  Láboratory. n.s. [laboratoire, French.] A chemist’s workroom.

  It would contribute to the history of colours, if chemists would in their laboratory take a heedful notice, and give us a faithful account, of the colours observed in the steam of bodies, either sublimed or distilled. Boyle on Colours.

  The flames of love will perform those miracles they of the furnace boast of, would they employ themselves in this laboratory. Decay of Piety.

  Labórious. adj. [laborieux, French; laboriosus, Latin.]

  1. Diligent in work; assiduous.

  That which makes the clergy glorious, is to be knowing in their professions, unspotted in their lives, active and laborious in their charges, bold and resolute in opposing seducers, and daring to look vice in the face; and lastly, to be gentle, courteous, and compassionate to all. South’s Sermons.

  To his laborious youth consum’d in war,

  And lasting age, adorn’d and crown’d with peace. Prior.

  2. Requiring labour; tiresome; not easy.

  A spacious cave within its farmost part,

  Was hew’d with and fashion’d by laborious art,

  Through the hill’s hollow sides. Dryd. Æn. 6.

  Do’st thou love watchings, abstinence, and toil,

  Laborious virtues all? learn them from Cato. Add. Cato.

  Labóriously. adv. [from laborious.] With labour; with toil.

  The folly of him, who pumps very laboriously in a ship, yet neglects to stop the leak. Decay of Piety.

  I chuse laboriously to bear

  A weight of woes, and breath the vital air. Pope’s Odys.

  Labóriousness. n.s. [from laborious.]

  1. Toilsomeness; difficulty.

  The parallel holds in the gainlessness as well as the laboriousness of the work; those wretched creatures, buried in earth and darkness, were never the richer for all the ore they digged; no more is the insatiate miser. Decay of Piety.

  2. Diligence; assiduity.

  Lábour. n.s. [labeur, French; labor, Latin.]

  1. The act of doing what requires a painful exertion of strength, or wearisome perseverance; pains; toil; travail; work.

  If I find her honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, it is labour well bestowed. Shakes. M. W. of Windsor.

  I sent to know your faith, lest the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain. 1 Thes. iii. 5.

  2. Work to be done.

  Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for. Hooker.

  You were wont to say,

  If you had been the wife of Hercules

  Six of his labours you’d have done, and sav’d

  Your husband so much sweat. Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.

  3. Exercise; motion with some degree of violence.

  Moderate labour of the body conduces to the preservation of health, and curing many initial diseases; but the toil of the mind destroys health, and generates maladies. Harvey.

  4. Childbirth; travail.

  Sith of womens labours thou hast charge,

  and generation of goodly doest enlarge,

  Incline thy will to effect our wishful vow. Spens. Epith.

  Not knowing ’twas my labour, I complain

  Of sudden shootings, and of grinding pain;

  My throws come thicker, and my cries encreas’d,

  Which with her hand the conscious nurse suppress’d. Dryd.

  Not one woman of two hundred dies in labour. Graunt.

  His heart is in continual labour; it even travails with the obligation, and is in pangs ‘till it be delivered. South’s Serm.

  To Lábour. v.a.

  1. To work at; to move with difficulty; to form with labour; to prosecute with effect.

  To use brevity, and avoid much labouring of the work, is to be granted to him that will make an abridgment. 2. Mac.

  The matter of the ceremonies had wrought, for the most part, only upon light-headed, weak men, whose satisfaction was not to be laboured for. Clarendon.

  The pains of famish’d Tantalus shall feel,

  And Sisyphus that labours up the hill,

  The rowling rock in vain, and curst Ixion’s wheel. Dryd.

  Had you requir’d my helpful hand,

  Th’ artificer and art you might command,

  To labour arms for Troy. Dryden’s Æneis.

  An eager desire to know something concerning him, has occasioned mankind to labour the point under these disadvantages, and turn on all hands to see if there were any thing left which might have the least appearance of information. Pope’s Essay on Homer.

  2. To beat; to belabour.

  Take, shepherd, take a plant of stubborn oak,

  And labour him with many a sturdy stroak. Dryden’s Virg.

  To Labour. v.n. [laboro, Latin.]

  1. To toil; to act with painful effort.

  When shall I come to th’ top of that same hill?

  — You do climb up it now; look how we labour. Shakes.

  For your highness’ good I ever labour’d,

  More than mine own. Shakespeare’s Hen. VIII.

  Who is with him?

  — None but the fool, who labours to out-jest

  His heart-struck injuries. Shakespeare’s K. Lear.

  Let more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein. Exod. v. 9.

  2. To do work; to take pains.

  Epaphras saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect. Col. iv. 12.

  A labouring man that is given to drunkenness shall not be rich. Ecclus. xix. 1.

  That in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day. Neh. iv. 22.

  Yet is their no end of all his labours; neither saith he, for whom do I labour. Eccl. iv. 8.

  As a man had a right to all he could employ his labour upon, so he had no temptation to labour for more than he could make use of. Locke.

  3. To move with difficulty.

  The stone that labours up the hill,

  Mocking the labourer’s toil, returning still,

  Is love. Granville.

  4. To be diseased with. [Morbo laborare, Latin.]

  They abound with horse,

  Of which one want our camp doth only labour,

  And I have found ’em coming. Ben. Johnson’s Catiline.

  I was called to another, who in childbed laboured of an ulcer in her left hip. Wiseman.


  5. To be in distress; to be pressed.

  To this infernal lake the fury flies,

  Here hides her hated head, and frees the lab’ring skies. Dryd.

  Trumpets and drums shall fright her from the Throne,

  As sounding cymbals aid the lab’ring moon. Dryd. Aur.

  This exercise will call down the favour of heaven upon you, to remove those afflictions you now labour under from you. Wake’s Preparation for Death.

  6. To be in child-birth; to be in travail.

  There lay a log unlighted on the earth,

  When she was lab’ring in the throws of birth;

  For th’ unborn chief the fatal sisters came,

  And rais’d it up, and toss’d it on the flame. Dryd. Ovid.

  Here, like some furious prophet, Pindar rode,

  And seem’d to labour with th’ inspiring God. Pope.

  He is so touch’d with the memory of her benevolence and protection, that his soul labours for an expression enough to represent it. Notes on the Odyssey.

  Lábourer. n.s. [laboureur, French.]

  1. One who is employed in coarse and toilsome work.

  If a state run most to noblemen and gentlemen, and that the husbandmen be but as their work-folks and labourers, you may have a good cavalry, but never good stable foot. Bacon.

  The sun but seem’d the lab’rer of the year,

  Each waxing moon supply’d her wat’ry store,

  To swell those tides, which from the line did bear

  Their brimful vessels to the Belgian shore. Dryden.

  Labourers and idle persons, children and striplings, old men and young men, must have divers diets. Arbuth. on Aliments.

  Not balmy sleep to lab’rers faint with pain,

  Not show’rs to larks, or sun-shine to the bee,

  Are half so charming, as thy sight to me. Pope’s Autumn.

  Yet hence the poor are cloth’d, the hungry fed,

  Health to himself, and to his infants bread,

  The lab’rer bears. Pope, Ep. iv. l. 167.

  The prince cannot say to the merchant, I have no need of thee; nor the merchant to the labourer, I have no need of thee. Swift’s Miscel.

  2. One who takes pains in any employment.

  Sir, I am a true labourer; I earn that I eat; get that I wear; owe no man hate; envy no man’s happiness. Shakes.

  The stone that labours up the hill,

  Mocking the lab’rer’s toil, returning still,

  Is love. Granville.

  Láboursome. adj. [from labour.] Made with great labour and diligence.

  Forget

  Your laboursome and dainty trims, wherein

  You made great Jove angry. Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.

  He hath, my lord, by laboursome petition,

  Wrung me from my slow leave. Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

  Lábra. n.s. [Spanish.] A lip. Hanmer.

  Word of denial in thy labras here;

  Word of denial, froth and scum thou liest. Shakespeare.

  Lábyrinth. n.s. [labyrinthus, Latin.] A maze; a place formed with inextricable windings.

  Suffolk, stay;

  Thou may’st not wander in that labyrinth;

  There Minotaurs, and ugly treasons lurk. Shakespeare.

  Words, which would tear

  The tender labyrinth of a maid’s soft ear. Donne.

  My clamours tear

  The ear’s soft labyrinth, and cleft the air. Sandy’s Paraph.

  The earl of Essex had not proceeded with his accustomed wariness and skill; but run into labyrinths, from whence he could not disentangle himself. Clarendon, b. viii.

  My soul is on her journey; do not now

  Divert, or lead her back, to lose herself

  I’ th’ maze and winding labyrinth o’ th’ world. Denham.

  M

  Has, in English, one unvaried sound, by compression of the lips; as, mine, tame, camp: it is never mute. Macaróon. n.s. [macarone, Italian.]

  1. A coarse, rude, low fellow; whence macaronick poetry, in which the language is purposely corrupted.

  Like a big wife, at sight of lothed meat,

  Ready to travail; so I sigh and sweat,

  To hear this macaroon talk on in vain. Donne.

  2. [Macaron, French, from μάκαρ.] A kind of sweet biscuit, made of flower, almonds, eggs, and sugar.

  Macáw. n.s. A bird in the West-Indies. Macaw-tree. n.s.

  The macaw-tree is a species of the palm-tree, and is very common in the Caribbee islands, where the negroes pierce the tender fruit, whence issues a pleasant liquor, which they are very fond of; and the body of the tree affords a solid timber, with which they make javelins, arrows, &c. and is supposed by some to be a sort of ebony. Miller.

  Mace. n.s. [maʒʒa, Saxon; maça, Spanish.]

  1. An ensign of authority worn before magistrates.

  He mightily upheld that royal mace

  Which now thou bear’st. Fairy Queen, b. ii.

  Death with his mace petrifick smote. Milton.

  2. [Massue, French; massa, Latin.] A heavy blunt weapon; a club of metal.

  O murth’rous slumber!

  Lay’st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy

  That plays thee musick? Shakesp. Julius Cæsar.

  The Turkish troops breaking in with their scymitars and heavy iron maces, made a most bloody execution. Knolles.

  With his mace their monarch struck the ground;

  With inward trembling earth receiv’d the wound,

  And rising streams a ready passage found.

  Dryden.

  The mighty maces with such haste descend,

  They break the bones, and make the solid armour bend. Dryden’s Knight’s Tale.

  3. [Macis, Latin.] A kind of spice.

  The nutmeg is inclosed in a threefold covering, of which the second is mace: it is a thin and flat membranaceous substance, of an oleaginous, and a yellowish colour: it has an extremely fragrant, aromatick, and agreeable smell, and a pleasant, but acrid and oleaginous taste. Mace is carminative, stomachick, and astringent. Hill’s Mat. Med.

  Water, vinegar, and honey, is a most excellent sudorifick: it is more effectual with a little mace added to it. Arbuthnot.

  Maceále. n.s. [mace and ale.] Ale spiced with mace.

  I prescribed him a draught of maceale, with hopes to dispose him to rest. Wiseman’s Surgery.

  Mácebearer. n.s. [mace and bear.] One who carries the mace before persons in authority.

  I was placed at a quadrangular table, opposite to the macebearer. Spectator, № 617.

  To Mácerate. v.a. [macero, Latin; macerer, French.]

  1. To make lean; to wear away.

  Recurrent pains of the stomach, megrims, and other recurrent head-aches, macerate the parts, and render the looks of patients consumptive and pining. Harvey on Consumptions.

  2. To mortify; to harrass with corporal hardships.

  Covetous men are all fools: for what greater folly can there be, or madness, than for such a man to macerate himself when he need not? Burton on Melancholy.

  Out of an excess of zeal they practise mortifications; whereby they macerate their bodies, and impair their health. Fiddes’s Sermons.

  3. To steep almost to solution, either with or without heat.

  In lotions in womens cases, he orders two portions of hellebore macerated in two cotylæ of water. Arbuthnot.

  Macerátion. n.s. [maceration, French; from macerate.]

  1. The act of wasting, or making lean.

  2. Mortification; corporal hardship.

  3. Maceration is an infusion either with or without heat, wherein the ingredients are intended to be almost wholly dissolved. Quincy.

  The saliva serves for a maceration and dissolution of the meat into a chyle. Ray on Creation.

  Máchinal. adj. [from machina, Latin.] Relating to machines. Dict.

  To Máchinate. v.a. [machinor, Latin; machiner, Fr.] To plan; to contrive. Machinátion. n.s. [machinatio, Lat. machination, Fr
ench; from machinate.] Artifice; contrivance; malicious scheme.

  If you miscarry,

  Your business of the world hath so an end,

  And machination ceases. Shakespeare’s King Lear.

  O from their machinations free,

  That would my guiltless soul betray;

  From those who in my wrongs agree,

  And for my life their engines lay. Sandy’s Paraphrase.

  Some one intent on mischief, or inspir’d

  With dev’lish machination, might devise

  Like instrument, to plague the sons of men

  For sin; on war, and mutual slaughter bent. Milton.

  Be frustrate all ye stratagems of hell,

  And devilish machinations come to nought. Milt. Par. Reg.

  How were they zealous in respect to their temporal governors? Not by open rebellion, not by private machinations; but in blessing and submitting to their emperors, and obeying them in all things but their idolatry. Spratt’s Sermons.

  Machíne. n.s. [machina, Latin; machine, French. This word is pronounced masheen.]

  1. Any complicated piece of workmanship.

  We are led to conceive this great machine of the world to have been once in a state of greater simplicity, as to conceive a watch to have been once in its first materials. Burnet.

  In a watch’s fine machine,

  The added movements which declare

  How full the moon, how old the year,

  Derive their secundary pow’r

  From that which simply points the hour. Prior.

  2. An engine.

  In the hollow side,

  Selected numbers of their soldiers hide;

  With inward arms the dire machine they load,

  And iron bowels stuff the dark abode. Dryden.

  3. Supernatural agency in poems.

  The marvellous fable includes whatever is supernatural, and especially the machines of the gods. Pope.

  Machínery. n.s. [from machine.]

  1. Enginery; complicated workmanship; self-moved engines.

  2. The machinery signifies that part which the deities, angels, or demons, act in a poem. Pope’s Rape of the Lock.

  Máchinist. n.s. [machineste, French; from machina, Latin.] A constructor of engines or machines. Mácilency. n.s. [from macilent.] Leanness. Dict.

  Mácilent. adj. [macilentus, Latin.] Lean. Máckerel. n.s. [mackereel, Dutch; maquereau, French.] A sea-fish.

  Some fish are gutted, split, and kept in pickle; as whiting and mackerel. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall.