lave

verb

1. (transitive)To bathe or wash (someone or something).

   “[M]y houſe vvithin the City / Is richly furniſhed vvith plate and gold, / Baſons and evvers to laue her dainty hands: […]”

   “[W]e muſt laue / Our Honors in theſe flattering ſtreames, / And make our Faces Vizards to our Hearts, / Diſguiſing vvhat they are.”

   “VVith Nectar pure his oozy Lock's he laves.”

   “[F]rom my vveary'd limbs I lave / The foul pollution of the briny vvave: […]”

   “Thanks be to God! He laveth the thirsty land! The waters gather; they rush along; they are lifting their voices.”

2. (transitive)Of a river or other water body: to flow along or past (a place or thing); to wash.

   “VVith roomy decks, her Guns of mighty ſtrength, / (VVhoſe lovv-laid mouthes each mounting billovv laves:) / Deep in her draught, and vvarlike in her length, / She ſeems a Sea-vvaſp flying on the vvaves.”

   “Scamandrius vvas his name, vvhich Hector gave, / From that fair flood [the Scamander or Karamenderes River] vvhich Ilion's vvall did lave: […]”

   “[M]ild Parthenope’s delightful Shore, / VVhere huſh'd in Clams the bord’ring Ocean laves / Her ſilent Coaſt, and rolls in languid VVaves; […]”

   “Delicious is your Shelter to the Soul, / As to the hunted Hart the ſallying Spring, / Or Stream full-flovving, that his ſvvelling Sides / Laves, as He floats along the Herbag'd Brink.”

   “Pleas'd I look back and vievv the tranquil tide / That laves the pebbled shore.”

3. (transitive)Followed by into, on, or upon: to pour (water or some other liquid) with or as if with a ladle into or on someone or something; to lade, to ladle.

   “Then the Lead being melted, […] it is laved into the Pan, […]”

4. (figuratively, transitive)To remove (something), as if by washing away with water.

   “And now, she sat down under the leafless tree, to weep; and in those bitter tears, childhood itself was laved from her soul for ever.”

5. (figuratively, transitive)To surround or gently touch (someone or something), as if with water.

   “[W]hen the midnight moon did lave / Her forehead in the silver wave, / How solemn on the ear would come / The holy mattin's distant hum, […]”

   “Approach, encompassing Death—strong Deliveress! / When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead, / Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee, / Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.”

6. (figuratively, transitive)Chiefly in sexual contexts: to lick (someone or something).

   “"Who could resist such a temptation?" he drawled, and bent to lave each nipple with his tongue till the satin was wet and clinging.”

   “Liam's mouth was so hot and wet on his cock, his tongue so wicked, laving his shaft expertly with smooth, slick strokes, delving into his slit and swiping away the fluid leaking from it. Why was Liam doing this?”

   “He continued to lave her with gentle laps, while his fingers caressed her until she cried out and her whole body convulsed.”

7. (archaic, obsolete, transitive)Followed by out or up: to draw or scoop (water) out of something with a bucket, scoop, etc.; specifically, to bail (water) out of a boat.

   “Thou haſt plaid muſique to my dolefull ſoule; / And vvhen my heart vvas tympaniz'd vvith griefe, / Thou lauedſt out ſome into thy heart from mine, / And kept it ſo from burſting; […]”

   “[W]hen I haue laved the Sea dry, thou ſhalt vnderſtand the myſtery of the Trinity; […]”

   “And now, as we were weary with pumping and laving out the water [from the boat], almost sinking, it pleas'd God on the suddaine to appease the wind, and with much ado and greate perill we recover'd the shore, which we now kept in view, […]”

   “Each in his vvay, officiously they vvrought; / Some ſtovv their Oars, or ſtop the leaky Sides, / Another bolder yet the Yard beſtrides, / And folds the Sails; a fourth vvith Labour, laves, / Th'intruding Seas, and VVaves ejects on VVaves.”

8. (intransitive, reflexive)To bathe or wash.

   “Happy he that ſips Eternally ſuch Nectar dovvn, that unconfin'd may Lave, and VVanton there in ſateleſs Draughts of ever ſpringing Beauty— […]”

   “The ſilver Stream her Virgin Coldneſs keeps, / For ever murmurs, and for ever vveeps; / […] / In her chaſt Current oft the Goddeſs laves, / And vvith Celeſtial Tears augments the VVaves.”

9. (figuratively, intransitive)To surround as if with water.
10. (figuratively, intransitive)Chiefly in sexual contexts; followed by at: to lick.

    “Alexander went from laving at her breasts to nuzzling her belly and then his mouth was on her bare thigh, nibbling at her flesh as his fingers delved inside her sheath. She felt herself stretch and squeeze against his long fingers.”

    “He pressed them back down and continued licking, laving at her as her inner muscles contracted around his fingers and she panted out his name. He didn't relent until the last shudder rippled through her beautiful body.”

    “[I]t took only a few moments of his tongue laving at her core before she was exploding in a mind-drugging climax that made her throat sore from her cries.”

11. (intransitive, obsolete, rare)Of ears: to droop, to hang down.

    “His mouth ſhrinks ſidevvard like a ſcornfull Playſe / To take his tired Eares ingratefull place; / His Eares hang lauing like a nevv-lug'd ſvvine / To take ſome counſell of his grieued eyne, […]”

noun

1. An act of bathing or washing; a bath or bathe, a wash.

   “Once more Arion and his loving nymph / Together rest within their summer cave, / In the green woodland, where the crystal lymph / Through sands and ivy pulsed with ceaseless lave.”

2. (also, figuratively, rare)The sea.

   “When Nature, languid, seems to rest, / Nor moves a leaf, nor heaves a wave, / And Zephyrs sleep, by Sol caress'd, / And sportive swallows skim the lave; […]”

3. (uncountable)That which is left over; a remainder, a remnant, the rest.

   “Of prelates proud, a populous lave, / And abbots boldly there vvere known. / VVith Biſhop of St. Andrevv's brave, / VVho vvas King James's baſtard ſon.”

   “The Mother, vvi' a vvoman's vviles, can ſpy / VVhat makes the Youth ſae baſhfu' and ſae grave; / VVeel-pleas'd to think her bairn's reſpected like the lave.”

   “[D]inna vex him ony mair, I'll pay the lave out o' the butter siller, and nae mair words about it.”

   “[A]uld Mucklebacket's gane wi' the lave—muckle gude he'll do!”

   “[T]hey ca' it fasting when they hae the best o' fish frae Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forbye trouts, gilses, salmon, and a' the lave o't, and so they make their very fasting a kind of luxury and abomination; […]”

4. (rare, uncountable)A relict, a widow.

adj

1. (not-comparable, obsolete)Chiefly in lave ears: of ears: drooping, hanging down.

   “And I ſvveare by the bloud of my codpiece, / An I vvere a vvoman I vvould lug off his laue eares, / Or run him to death vvith a ſpit: […]”

   “[C]omplexion here red, there tavvny, in another Country black vvins the prize: for proportion, here the tall, there the mean, here the ſlender, there the groſs, here the little Ear, there the lave Ear, here the thin Lip, there the Blubber-lip, here the ſtreight, there the die Neck are eſteemed moſt courtly.”