Forms: (pa. t. 4 last, laiste), 4–6 las(s)ch(e, lasshe, 5 lasschyn, 5–6 lashe, 6– lash. [Of difficult etymology. The quots. seem to show that in branch I. the vb. is the source, not the derivative, of LASH sb.1 An onomatopœic origin is possible, and is favored by the early appearance of the parallel and nearly synonymous LUSH v.; cf. dash, dush, flash, flush, mash, mush, smash, smush, etc. Some uses resemble those of F. lâcher (OF. lascher) to loose, let go (lâcher un coup to ‘let fly’). The senses in branch II. are from the sb., and in mod. use have colored the other senses.]
I. To move swiftly and suddenly.
1. intr. To make a sudden movement; to dash, fly, rush, spring, start. Of light: To flash. Of tears, water: To pour, rush. Occas. with allusion to LASH sb.1 2. Also with about, † asunder, away, back, down, out, † together. Const. at, from, into, † on, out of, to.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 9263 (Kölbing). Mani geauntes … Þat on Arthour at ones last & wiþ his hors to grounde him dast.
13[?]. S. Erkenwolde, 334, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 273. Liȝtly lasshit þer a leme loghe in þe abyme.
13[?]. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.), 502/346. Wiþ his teth anon He logged, þat al in-synder gon lasch.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2801. Whene ledys with longe speris Lasschene to gedyrs.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 553. Þe liȝt lemand late laschis fra þe heuyn.
c. 1460. Emare, 298. The teres lasshed out of his yyen.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. xi. 200. Al thre lasshed on hym at ones with swerdes. Ibid., xii. 203. Thenne they drewe her swerdes and lasshyd to gyder egerly.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, II. [I.] xl[iii.] (1628), 39. Thou knowest not … what ioyes thou losest, when thou fondly lashest into new offences.
1633. Quarles, Ded. to P. Fletcher’s Poet. Misc. I … Past on my wa;: I lasht through thick and thinne.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. xi. 562. To keep them … from lashing into those extremes, whereinto [etc.].
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), XI. 249. When it [sin] finds the least vent, it lashes out to the purpose.
1820. Edin. Mag., May, 423. Wi’ swash an’ swow, the angry jow Cam lashan’ down the braes.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. xxv. 283. A lizard [in stone] pausing and curling himself round a little in the angle; one expects him the next instant to lash round the shaft and vanish.
1883. ‘Annie Thomas,’ Mod. Housewife, 124. The rain was still lashing down furiously.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 1065. The Filariæ sanguinis … wriggling and lashing about … among the corpuscles.
2. To let fly at, make a dash or rush at, aim a blow at. † Also with at used adverbially. In later use, with mixture of sense 6.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1392. Archars … Lasch [Dublin MS. lashe] at þam of loft.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. x. The chorle … lasshyd at hym with a grete clubbe.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. ix. 67. Now lasch thai at with bludy swerdis brycht.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. vi. 16. Lashing dreadfully at every part. Ibid., V. v. 6. She hewd, she foynd, she lasht, she laid on every side.
1693. Dryden, Persius’ Sat., v. (1697), 471. To laugh at Follies, or to lash at Vice.
1728. T. Sheridan, Persius, Prol. (1739), 4. He rather lashes at those Poetasters.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 563. Each … lash’d at each … with such blows, that [etc.].
b. To lash out: to strike out violently, to lay about one vigorously; (of a horse) to kick out. Also fig. † Also to lash it out.
1567. Triall Treas. (1850), 42. Yet will I … repugne, lashe out, and kicke.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 321/2. After that to the barriers, where they lashed it out lustilie, and fought couragiouslie.
1852. Smedley, L. Arundel, xxxv. 269. Lewis … lashed out too, when he was first put in harness.
1884. Truth, 4 Sept., 369/2. He … ‘revived pamphleteering’ only to lash out at a famous Quarterly Reviewer for the great Tory historian’s vilification of Carlyle.
1900. F. Anstey, Brass Bottle, xiv. 222. He might … be lashing out with his hind legs and kicking everything to pieces at this very moment!
† c. trans. To assail, attack.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 9783 (Kölbing). Bohort als a geaunt laiste & þe heued al todaiste.
3. trans. To dash, throw or move violently. Obs. exc. in technical use. † Also with forth, out, up. To lash off, to strike off.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 7584 (Kölbing). Among þe ribaus anon he dast &sum þe heued of he laist.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1325. He laschis out a lange swerde quen his launce failes.
c. 1430. Chev. Assigne, 323. Feraunce launces vp his fete & lasschethe out his yen.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 54. He lasshed ageynst the grounde the cuppe that I loued beste.
1542. Lam. & Piteous Treat., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), I. 241. Lashinge oute, and shotynge of, in all the haste theyr greate gownes and harquebusshes.
1693. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., XII. 472. He falls; and lashing up his Heels, his Rider throws.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 378/1. The wool-comber … throws or ‘lashes’ a handful of wool … over the points of the teeth.
† 4. To lavish, squander. Chiefly with out. Obs.
1513. More, Rich. III., Wks. 62/1. There was dayly pilled fro good men & honest, gret substaunce of goodes to be lashed oute among vnthriftes.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 11. They had leuer lash out theyr wicked Mammon on the dead than on the quicke.
1573. Tusser, Husb., xxiii. (1878), 64. Some horsekeeper lasheth out prouender so … that corne loft is empted er chapman hath his.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 30/1. Then would he lash & powre all that euer he had in store or treasurie.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 64. [He] must instantly … lash out that riotously, that his father got miserly.
1609. W. M., Man in Moone, C 3 b You suppose it a great glory to lash your coyne, you care not where, nor vppon wham.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlem. (1641), 88. Neither to hoard up niggardly nor lash out all lavishly.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., II. 327. A wicked man doth prodigally lash out all his joyes in the time of his prosperitie.
† b. To pour out or forth impetuously (words, etc.).
1529. More, Dyaloge, IV. Wks. 287/1. Colis … lasheth out scripture in bedelem as fast as they bothe in Almayn.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 232. Then lasheth he forth many authorities and examples.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., ii. 56. Hate, lashth out trewth, foes to displease.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 129. Som men lash out cursings and othes of God, thereby prouoking him to anger.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., v. 13. Lashing out some words, that were a little more harsher than was requisite.
5. intr. Of persons. With out: To rush, launch out, into excess of any kind; to break out into violent language; to squander one’s substance, be lavish. (In some quots. = absol. use of 4.)
a. 1560. Becon, Sick Man’s Salve (1572), 145. Then lash they out, & liberally geue unto the poore, because they can keepe it no longer.
1592. Greene, Def. Conny Catch. (1859), 13. A yoong youthful Gentleman, given a little to lash out liberally.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 287. So that hee … fall into no excesse, neither lash out beyond all reason and measure.
1629. Z. Boyd, Last Battell, 826. That I lash not out into the excesse of supperfluitie of wickednesse.
1664. Floddan F., III. 22. Alas too lewdly he lashed out And foolishly his Ordnance spend.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, III. ix. 470. Yet could not the Duke … sometimes forbear lashing out into very free expressions.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xiv. (1824), 281. It consisted not with the gravity … of a nation professing true religion, to lash out so excessively that way [in dress].
II. Senses referring to LASH sb.1
6. trans. To beat, strike with a lash, whip, † rod, etc.; to flog, scourge.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xii. (Tollem. MS.). A bonde seruaunt … is bete and lasshid with ȝerdis.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 288/1. Lasschyn … verbero.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxvi. 75. Belliall, with a brydill renȝie, Evir lascht thame on the lunȝie.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 165. Why dost thou lash that Whore?
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 363. Some … furiously lash their bare shoulders with thorns.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 89. What became of the fellow that was lashed we knew not.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., vii. Lashing the pony until they reached their journey’s end.
1858. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 361. The lady lashed her horse and set off in pursuit.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, V. 147. The charioteer as he speeds Tosses his flowing reins, and arising, lashes his steeds.
absol. a. 1684. T. Lye, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. lxxxix. 30–4. He lashes in love, in measure, in pity, and compassion.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 169. The Youthful Charioteers … Stoop to the Reins, and lash with all their Force.
b. transf., esp. of the action of waves upon the shore, etc. Occas. intr. To fall with a lashing movement on the shore.
c. 1694. Prior, Lady’s Looking Glass, 16. Big waves lash the frighten’d shores.
1735. Somerville, Chase, III. 255. Ah! what avail[s] … thy length of Tail, That lashes thy broad Sides.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., Proem 52. From where th’ Atlantic lashes Labrador.
1818. Shelley, Lines Euganean Hills, 186. Poesy’s unfailing river … Lashing with melodious wave Many a sacred poet’s grave.
1837. Apperley, Chase, Road & Turf (1898), 48. Another hound slips out of cover … with his nose to the ground and his stern lashing his side.
a. 1851. Moir, Poems, Starlight Refl. Lash the hoarse billows on the shore.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, i. (1876), 3. It was a wet night; the rain lashed the panes.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, IV. 249. Atlas the rude … lashed by the wind and the rain evermore.
c. fig.; esp. ‘To scourge with satire’ (J.); to castigate in words, rebuke, satirize, vituperate.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. i. 15. Why, headstrong liberty is lasht with woe.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. i. I. i. (1651), 221. He calls a Magician Gods Minister and his Vicar … for which he is lashed by T. Erastus.
1661. T. Lye, in Morn. Exerc. Cripplegate, xviii. 436. It is true God may frown on, yea, and severely lash a Solomon, a Jedidiah, when they break his Statutes.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Persius’ Sat., I. Wks. 1730, I. 53. I must … Lash the vile town with my satirick rhime.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., I. ii. 27. They [the hunting clergy] were severely lashed by the poets and moralists.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. vii. I. 391. He does not fail to lash the schoolmen directly.
1859. Tennyson, Pelleas & Ettarre, 581. A scourge am I To lash the treasons of the Table Round.
1877. Black, Green Past., xxv. 203. Balfour … found himself lashed and torn to pieces every morning by the ‘Englebury Mercury.’
7. With adv. or phrase as complement: To urge or drive by, or as by, lashes.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 328. Let’s whip these straglers o’re the Seas againe, Lash hence these ouer-weening Ragges of France.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., cclxxii. Those that disobey’d He lash’d to duty with his sword of light.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, X. 584. These [steeds], with his bow unbent, he lash’d along.
1729. T. Cooke, Tales, Proposals, etc. 182. He does not threaten to disarm him, but … to lash him from the Assembly.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 132. The passionate pedantic Schoolmaster, that lashes his Disciples into Learning.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 260. A glassy lake … Lashed into foaming waves.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxviii. The excitement into which she had been lashed.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 325. Should I find you by my doors again, My men shall lash you from them like a dog.
1871. Miss Yonge, Cameos, II. xvii. 188. The violence of a weak nature lashed up to rage.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, 89. Then I see … the waves Lashed into madness.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 307. A strong head wind lashed the river into waves.
absol. 1692. South, 12 Serm., 43–4 (J.). They are like men out of their way; let them Lash on never so fast, they are not at all the nearer to their Journeys end.
† b. To force out by a lash or stroke. Obs.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 23. Others have their eie lasht out by a twig in their travaile.
