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Webster 1913 Edition

Lake

Lake

(lāk)
,
Noun.
[F.
laque
, fr. Per. See
Lac
.]
A pigment formed by combining some coloring matter, usually by precipitation, with a metallic oxide or earth, esp. with aluminium hydrate;
as, madder
lake
; Florentine
lake
; yellow
lake
, etc.

Lake

,
Noun.
[Cf. G.
laken
.]
A kind of fine white linen, formerly in use.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Lake

(lāk)
,
Verb.
I.
[AS.
lācan
,
læcan
, to spring, jump,
lāc
play, sport, or fr. Icel.
leika
to play, sport; both akin to Goth.
laikan
to dance. √120. Cf.
Knowledge
.]
To play; to sport.
[Prov. Eng.]

Lake

,
Noun.
[AS.
lac
, L.
lacus
; akin to AS.
lagu
lake, sea, Icel.
lögr
; OIr.
loch
; cf. Gr.
λάκκοσ
pond, tank. Cf.
Loch
,
Lough
.]
A large body of water contained in a depression of the earth’s surface, and supplied from the drainage of a more or less extended area.
☞ Lakes are for the most part of fresh water; the salt lakes, like the Great Salt Lake of Utah, have usually no outlet to the ocean.
Lake dwellers
(Ethnol.)
,
people of a prehistoric race, or races, which inhabited different parts of Europe. Their dwellings were built on piles in lakes, a short distance from the shore. Their relics are common in the lakes of Switzerland.
–
Lake dwellings
(Archaeol.)
,
dwellings built over a lake, sometimes on piles, and sometimes on rude foundations kept in place by piles; specifically, such dwellings of prehistoric times. Lake dwellings are still used by many savage tribes. Called also
lacustrine dwellings
. See
Crannog
.
–
Lake fly
(Zool.)
,
any one of numerous species of dipterous flies of the genus
Chironomus
. In form they resemble mosquitoes, but they do not bite. The larvae live in lakes.
–
Lake herring
(Zool.)
,
the cisco (
Coregonus Artedii
).
–
Lake poets
,
Lake school
,
a collective name originally applied in contempt, but now in honor, to Southey, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, who lived in the lake country of Cumberland, England, Lamb and a few others were classed with these by hostile critics. Called also
lakers
and
lakists
.
–
Lake sturgeon
(Zool.)
,
a sturgeon (
Acipenser rubicundus
), of moderate size, found in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. It is used as food.
–
Lake trout
(Zool.)
,
any one of several species of trout and salmon; in Europe, esp.
Salmo fario
; in the United States, esp.
Salvelinus namaycush
of the Great Lakes, and of various lakes in New York, Eastern Maine, and Canada. A large variety of brook trout (
Salvelinus fontinalis
), inhabiting many lakes in New England, is also called
lake trout
. See
Namaycush
.
–
Lake whitefish
.
(Zool.)
See
Whitefish
.
–
Lake whiting
(Zool.)
,
an American whitefish (
Coregonus Labradoricus
), found in many lakes in the Northern United States and Canada. It is more slender than the common whitefish.

Webster 1828 Edition

Lake

LAKE

,
Verb.
I.
To play; to sport. North of England. This is play, without a prefix.

LAKE

,
Noun.
[L. lacus. A lake is a stand of water, from the root of lay. Hence L. lagena, Eng. flagon.]
1.
A large and extensive collection of water contained in a cavity or hollow of the earth. It differs from a pond in size, the latter being a collection of small extent; but sometimes a collection of water is called a pond or a lake indifferently. North America contains some of the largest lakes on the globe, particularly the lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior.
2.
A middle color between ultramarine and vermilion, made of cochineal.

Definition 2024

Lake

Lake

See also: lake, Lãke, läke, and lakë

English

Proper noun

Lake

  1. A surname​.
  2. A town on the Isle of Wight, England
  3. A town in Mississippi
  4. One of two towns in Wisconsin

Derived terms

  • Lake City

German

Etymology

From Middle Low German lāke, from Proto-Germanic *lakō ‎(“lake, pool”). Originally the same word as Lache ‎(“puddle”), which see for more.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlaːkə/

Noun

Lake f ‎(genitive Lake, plural Laken)

  1. brine (saltwater used for pickling)

Usage notes

  • A pleonastic compound Salzlake is often used instead of the simplex.

Declension

German Low German

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle Low German lāke, from Old Saxon laca (attested in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *lakō. More at lake.

Noun

Lake f (plural Laken)

  1. The small, naturally occurring outflow or drainage of a lowland or swamp

lake

lake

See also: Lake, Lãke, läke, and lakë

English

A mountain lake

Noun

lake ‎(plural lakes)

  1. (now chiefly dialectal) A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
  2. A large, landlocked stretch of water.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
      Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
  3. A large amount of liquid; as, a wine lake.
    • 1991, Robert DeNiro (actor), Backdraft:
      So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?
Usage notes

As with the names of rivers, mounts and mountains, the names of lakes are typically formed by adding the word before or after the unique term: Lake Titicaca or Great Slave Lake. Generally speaking, names formed using adjectives or attributives see lake added to the end, as with Reindeer Lake; lake is usually added before proper names, as with Lake Michigan. This derives from the earlier but now uncommon form lake of ~: for instance, the 19th-century Lake of Annecy is now usually simply Lake Annecy. It frequently occurs, however, that foreign placenames are misunderstood as proper nouns, as with the Chinese Taihu ‎(“Great Lake”) and Qinghai ‎(“Blue Sea”) being frequently rendered as Lake Tai and Qinghai Lake.

Synonyms
  • See also Wikisaurus:lake
Derived terms
Translations
body of water
See also
References
  • Astell, Ann W. (1999) Political Allegory in Late Medieval England, Cornell University Press, ISBN 978-0-8014-3560-7, page 192.
  • Cameron, Kenneth (1961) English Place Names, B. T. Batsford Limited, ISBN 978-0-416-27990-0, page 164.
  • Ferguson, Robert (1858) English Surnames: And their Place in the Teutonic Family, G. Routledge & Co., page 368.
  • Maetzner, Eduard Adolf Ferdinand (2009) An English Grammar; Methodical, Analytical, and Historical, BiblioBazaar, LLC, ISBN 978-1-113-14996-1, page 200.
  • Rissanen, Matti (1992) History of Englishes: New Methods and Interpretations in Historical Linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-013216-8, pages 513–514.
  • Sisam, Kenneth (2009) Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose, BiblioBazaar, ISBN 978-1-110-73080-3.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lake, lak, lac (also loke, laik, layke), from Old English lāc ‎(“play, sport, strife, battle, sacrifice, offering, gift, present, booty, message”), from Proto-Germanic *laiką ‎(“play, fight”), *laikaz ‎(“game, dance, hymn, sport”), from Proto-Indo-European *loig-, *leig- ‎(“to bounce, shake, tremble”). Cognate with Old High German leih ‎(“song, melody, music”) and Albanian luaj ‎(“I move, play”). More at lay.

Noun

lake ‎(plural lakes)

  1. (obsolete) An offering, sacrifice, gift.
  2. (dialectal) Play; sport; game; fun; glee.
Derived terms

Verb

lake ‎(third-person singular simple present lakes, present participle laking, simple past and past participle laked)

  1. (obsolete) To present an offering.
  2. (chiefly dialectal) To leap, jump, exert oneself, play.

Etymology 3

From Middle English lake, from Old English *lacen or Middle Dutch laken; both from Proto-Germanic *lakaną ‎(“linen; cloth; sheet”). Cognate with Dutch lake ‎(“linen”), Dutch laken ‎(“linen; bedsheet”), German Laken, Danish lagan, Swedish lakan, Icelandic lak, lakan.

Noun

lake ‎(plural lakes)

  1. (obsolete) A kind of fine, white linen.

Etymology 4

From French laque ‎(“lacquer”), from Persian لاک ‎(lāk), from Hindi lakh ‎(lakh), from Sanskrit laksha ‎(laksha, “one hundred thousand”), referring to the number of insects that gather on the trees and make the resin seep out.

Noun

lake ‎(plural lakes)

  1. In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermillion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.
Derived terms
  • lake-red
Translations

Verb

lake ‎(third-person singular simple present lakes, present participle laking, simple past and past participle laked)

  1. To make lake-red.

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

lake

  1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of laken

Anagrams

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Low German lake

Noun

lake m ‎(definite singular laken, indefinite plural laker, definite plural lakene)

  1. (preservative) pickle, brine

Etymology 2

From Old Norse laki

Noun

lake m ‎(definite singular laken, indefinite plural laker, definite plural lakene)

  1. (fish) burbot, eelpout (genus Lota lota)

Etymology 3

As for Etymology 1.

Verb

lake

  1. to pickle, put in brine

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Low German lake

Noun

lake m ‎(definite singular laken, indefinite plural lakar, definite plural lakane)

  1. (preservative) pickle, brine

Etymology 2

From Old Norse laki

Noun

lake m ‎(definite singular laken, indefinite plural lakar, definite plural lakane)

  1. (fish) burbot, eelpout (genus Lota lota)

Etymology 3

As for Etymology 1.

Verb

lake

  1. to pickle, put in brine

References

Swahili

Adjective

lake

  1. Ji class inflected form of -ake.

Swedish

Noun

lake c

  1. burbot (a freshwater fish: Lota lota)

Declension

Inflection of lake 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative lake laken lakar lakarna
Genitive lakes lakens lakars lakarnas

Etymology

From Middle English lake ‎(“lake, watercourse, body of water”), from Old English lacu ‎(“lake, pond, pool, stream, watercourse”), from Proto-Germanic *lakō, *lōkiz ‎(“stream, pool, water aggregation", originally "ditch, drainage, seep”), from Proto-Germanic *lekaną ‎(“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg-, *leǵ- ‎(“to leak”). Cognate with Scots lake ‎(“pond, pool, flowing water of a stream”), Dutch laak ‎(“lake, pond, stream”), German Low German Lake, Laak ‎(“pooled water; puddle”), German Lache ‎(“pool, puddle”), Faroese løkur ‎(“stream, brook, flow”), Icelandic lækur ‎(“stream, brook, flow”). See also leak, leach.

Despite their similarity in form and meaning, English lake is not related to Latin lacus ‎(“hollow, lake, pond”), Scottish Gaelic loch ‎(“lake”), Ancient Greek λάκκος ‎(lákkos, “waterhole, tank, pond, pit”), all from Proto-Indo-European *lakʷ- ‎(“lake, pool”). Instead, this root is represented by Old English lagu ‎(“sea, flood, water, ocean”), through Proto-Germanic *laguz, *lahō ‎(“sea, water”), perhaps related to Albanian lag ‎(“to water, make wet, moisturize”). See lay.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) enPR: lāk, IPA(key): /leɪk/
  • Rhymes: -eɪk

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