Obs. exc. dial. Also 4–5 lache, 5 laach, lacche, 5–7 lasch(e, 6 lashe. [a. OF. lasche (F. lâche) vbl. adj., f. OF. lascher (F. lâcher): see LACHE v. With sense 3, cf. LUSH a.]

1

  † 1.  Culpably negligent or remiss. Obs.

2

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. iii. 122. Yif he be slowe and astoned and lache he lyueþ as an asse.

3

c. 1422.  Hoccleve, Learn to Die, 267. How laach and negligent Haue y been.

4

1549.  Compl. Scot., xvii. 146. Thai that var lasche couuardis gat nothing.

5

1567.  Satir. Poems Reform., v. 64. Sen God hes to ȝow power lent, Gif ye be lashe ye ar to blame.

6

1673.  O. Walker, Educ., v. 39. Immoderate praise makes him … lasch and negligent.

7

1694.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, 385. A lasche demission of Sovereign authority.

8

  † 2.  In physical sense: Loose, lax, relaxed. Obs.

9

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, IX. xiii. 81. Hys wery breist and lymmys lasch.

10

1530.  Palsgr., 317/1. Lashe nat fast, lache.

11

1546.  Phaër, Regim. Lyfe, L iij. Goute, which procedeth som time of debility of the synowes being lashe.

12

  3.  a. Of food, fruits, grass, etc.: Soft, watery. b. Of weather: Raw, wet. c. Of a hide: Tender. d. Lash egg (see quot. a. 1825). Obs. exc. dial.

13

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 288/1. Lasche, or to fresche, and vnsavery.

14

1599.  H. Buttes, Dyets drie Dinner, I. Not so good for the weake … stomackes, for it is of a lash and yet grosse substance.

15

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Gard. Cyrus, v. 71. Fruits being unwholsome and lash, before the fourth, or fifth Yeare.

16

1787.  W. Marshall, Norfolk (1795), II. 383. Lash, or Lashy, very wet; as ‘cold lashy weather.’

17

1798.  Ann. Agric., XXX. 314. A thick hide is bad, and a very thin one too lash.

18

a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lash-egg, an egg without a full formed shell; covered only with a tough film.

19

1857.  Borrow, Romany Rye (1858), I. 299. ‘After September the grass is good for little, lash and sour at best.’

20

  Hence † Lashly adv.

21

1694.  Sir W. Hope, Sword-man’s Vade-m., 12. That he may not by being advised to play calmly, fall into the other extreme of playing too carelessly, lashly, and perhaps timerously.

22