Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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adj
Lax, weak; specifically of the bowels: affected by diarrhoea; loose.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Originally of both persons and animals, now only of animals: looseness of the bowels; diarrhoea; (countable) a bout of this ailment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Topics: biology, medicine, natural-sciences, pathology, sciences, veterinary, zoology
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From Middle English laske (“lax, weak; of the bowels: loose”), from Old Northern French *lasque, Old French laske, lasche (“not taut or tight, limp”) (modern French lâche (“loose, slack”)), from Old French lascher, laschier (“to let go of, release; to loosen, relax”): see further at etymology 1.
From the adjective: see etymology 2.
From Middle English lasken (“to diminish, weaken (the blood or other body fluids, body tissues, etc.); to thin (the blood through bloodletting); to alleviate (pain, sickness); to grow weak; to shorten (one’s life)”) [and other forms], from Old Northern French *lasquer, Old French lascher, laschier (“to let go of, release; to loosen, relax”) (modern French lâcher (“to let go of, release; to loosen”)), from Vulgar Latin *lascāre, *lassicāre, from Latin *laxicāre, the frequentative of Latin laxāre, the present active infinitive of laxō (“to relax, weaken; to release, undo; to make wide, open”), from laxus (“free, loose, slack; roomy, spacious, wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg-, *(s)leh1g- (“faint; weak”).
