Also 4–6 lasshe, 5 las(c)he. [? f. LASH v.1]
1. † a. gen. A sudden or violent blow; a dashing or sweeping stroke (obs.). b. spec. A stroke with a thong or whip.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 9375 (Kölbing). Kehenans com wiþ gret rape & ȝaf king Arthour swiche a las, Þat Arthour al astoned was.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 220. Proude bayard gynneth for to skyppe … Til he a lassh haue of þe long whippe.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 31. Foure score lasshes [L. octoginta verbera].
c. 1460. Play Sacram., 468. On lashe I shalle hyme lende or yt be long.
1549. Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Heb. 23. Oure parentes … dyd wyth … lashes teache vs the commen behauiour of this lyfe.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, V. xvii. 374. Therewith they whipped themselves, giving great lashes over their shoulders.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, II. xi. (1840), 64. All desiring to have a lash at the dog in the manger.
1661. T. Lye, in Morn. Exerc. Cripplegate, xviii. 459. I that have deserved the blow of an Executioners Axe, am sent away with the Lash only of a Fathers Rod.
1735. Somerville, Chase, II. 116. Let each Lash Bite to the Quick, till howling he return.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxv. 165. The private men have … five hundred lashes if they desert.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, ii. I gave my horse a lash that sounded through the forest.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 230. The Mutiny Act restricts the award of Corporal punishment by a General Court-Martial to 200 Lashes.
1880. Mrs. Forrester, Roy & Viola, I. 175. The first lash brought the colour to her cheeks.
transf. and fig. 1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 159. Moost domage of all and perylous lasshe they procure to themselfe.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. Proem. Skud from the lashes of my yerking rime.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. i. 50. How smart a lash that speech doth giue my Conscience.
1693. in Dryden’s Juvenal, IV. Argt. The Poet … brings in Crispinus, whom he had a lash at in his first Satyr.
1697. Bentley, Phal., Pref. (1699), 3. This was meant as a lash for me.
1710. Addison, Whig Exam., No. 2, ¶ 5. The first lash of his Satyr falls upon the Censor of Great Britain.
2. The flexible part of a whip; now sometimes in narrower sense, the piece of whipcord or the like forming the extremity of this. Cf. LASH sb.2
c. 1381. Chaucer, Parl. Foules, 178. The boxtre pipere, holm to whippis lasch.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. iv. 63. Her Whip of Crickets bone, the Lash of Philome.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 108, ¶ 2. I observed … that your Whip wanted a Lash to it.
a. 1800. Cowper, Morning Dream, 30. In his hand … A scourge hung with lashes he bore.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, IV. i. 69. He will not ask it of me till the lash Be broken in its last and deepest wound.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, vii. 94. Employing himself in plaiting fresh pieces [of whipcord] … on the lash of his whip.
b. Used poet. and rhetorically = ‘whip, scourge.’ lit. and fig. Also in phrase, † Out of (a person’s) lash: out of danger from (his) attacks.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 98/1. He was out of his lash that minded to haue betraied him.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 209. The slave fears the lash of his cruell Master.
1659. Bp. Walton, Consid. Considered, 197. The Vulgar Latin scapes the lash pretty well.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, V. 457. The lash resounds, the rapid chariot flies.
1732. Swift, Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 671. Lest they should fall under the lash of the penal laws.
1786. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 28 Nov. With all this … she has not escaped the lash of scandal.
1820. Shelley, Hymn to Mercury, lxxxv. Apollo … gave him in return the glittering lash, Installing him as herdsman.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, II. 288. The Persians … were driven on to the conflict by the lash of their commanders.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, VI. 571. Tisiphone … Scourges the trembling sinners, her fierce lash arming her hands.
1891. S. C. Scriverer, Our Fields & Cities, 117. Hunger is as keen a lash as the whip of the overseer of slaves.
c. The lash: the punishment of flogging.
1694. F. Bragge, Disc. Parables (1706), I. vii. 238. Such Vagabonds … would … look upon honest Industry as more eligible than the Lash.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 157, ¶ 6. This Custom of educating by the Lash.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxi. III. 126. He expired under the lash.
1860. Knight’s Eng. Cycl., Arts & Sci., V. 654. Serious breaches of discipline are still punished with the lash.
1881. Times, 29 March, 9/3. There is throughout these kingdoms a strong instinctive dislike of the lash.
† d. ? The next place to the front in a team of four horses. Cf. lash-horse in 5. Obs. rare–1.
1607. Markham, Caval., V. (1617), 56. Cause him to be put vnto the Cart, placing him in that place which the Carters call the Lash, so that hee may haue two Horses to follow behinde him, whome together with the loade … he cannot draw away.
¶ e. An alleged name for a ‘company’ of carters. Obs. rare–1.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vij.
3. Short for EYE-LASH.
1796. Brougham, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 267. Priestley [makes them arise] from inflection through the lashes.
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. 316. Tears she sheds—Large tears that leave the lashes bright!
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, i. Long dark lashes … concealed his downcast eyes.
† 4. Phrases of obscure origin in which the identity of the word is doubtful. To leave in the lash = to leave in the lurch. To lie in the lash: to be left in the lurch. To run in or upon the lash: to incur more debts than one can pay. Obs.
[Possibly we should compare in the lash with out of his lash (quot. 1586 in 2 b). The passage from Tusser (quot. 1573 below) is given by Johnson as his only example of the sense ‘a leash or string in which an animal is held, a snare (cf. LASH sb.2). Some have assigned to the sb. in these phrases a sense ‘mire.’]
1573. Tusser, Husb., lxiii. (1878), 144. The fermer they leaue in the lash, with losses on euerie side.
1575. Gascoigne, Fable Ferd. Ieron., Posies 228. My Nell hath stolne thy finest stuffe and left thee in the lash.
1576. Woolton, Chr. Manual, I iij. The wyse and welmeaning debtour who, goeth eyther vppon the score, or booke, hath oftentymes an eye vnto the score; least he be ouerreckoned and runne in the lashe.
1584. R. Wilson, Three Ladies Lond., II. A iij. I will flaunt it and brave it after the lusty swash: Ile deceiue thousandes, what care I who lye in the lashe?
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 436. We runne on still vpon the lash, and neuer looke on the score.
a. 1624. Bp. M. Smith, Serm. (1632), 110. When we lost Callis in his quarrell, he left vs in the lash, and gaue vs the slip.
5. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) lash-free; (sense 3) lash-shaded, -shadowed adjs.; lash-horse (see quot.); lash-whip, a whip with a lash, opposed to a ‘crop’ (see CROP sb. 7 c).
1623. B. Jonson, Masques, Time Vind. I with this whipp you see Doe lash the Time, and am my selfe *lash-free.
1887. Kentish Gloss., *Lash-horse, the third horse from the plough or wagon, or horse before a pin-horse in the team.
1872. J. H. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire, 111. The aquiline nose and the *lash-shaded dark, bright eye.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess (1900), 115/2. Her … *lash-shadowed eyes.
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsemen (1809), 35. I would advise you always to ride with a *lash whip; it shews the sportsman.
