Forms: 1 læt, (lat-), 3 let, 3–7 chiefly Sc. and north. lat, (4 latt, 5 laat), 3– late; Sc. (and north.) 4–5 layt, 4–6 lait, 5 layte, 5–7 laite, 6 lett. For the comparative and superlative see LATER, LATTER, and LATEST, LAST. [Com. Teut.: OE. læt = OFris. let, OS. lat, LG. lât (Du. laat), OHG., MHG. laȥ (G. lass), ON. lat-r (Sw. lat, Du. lad), Goth. lats, all in the sense of ‘slow, sluggish, lazy’:—OTeut. *lato-; f. *lat- (:—pre-Teut. *lad-, cf. L. lassus weary = *lad-tus) ablaut-var. of *lēt-: see LET v.1]
1. Slow, tardy; dial. slow in progress, tedious. Const. to with inf.; also with gen. or of. Now dial.
Beowulf, 1529. Eft was unræd, nalas elnes læt.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xxxviii. 281. Swiðe ʓeornfull to ʓehieranne, & swiðe læt to sprecanne.
971. Blickl. Hom., 43. Se mæsse-preost se þe bið to læt þæt he þæt deofol of men adrife.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 238. Be latre meltunge innan.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 183. To gode þu ware slau & let, & to euele spac & hwat.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 37. His waxunge se lat & se slaw his thrifti.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17288. + 374. ‘A! foyls,’ quod our lord, ‘ful latt are ȝe to traw.’
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1172. Of leaute he watz lat to his lorde hende.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 695. Ioseph … Called him Mordreyns ‘a lat mon’ in trouþe.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 223. Laat of mevynge, and Slow to take nedys but yf thay bene grete.
1674–91. Ray, N. C. Words, 42. Lat, late, slow, tedious…. Lat week.
1826. Wilbraham, Gloss. Cheshire, 53. Lat-a-foot, slow in moving.
1887. S. Cheshire Gloss., Lat … (4) tedious. ‘A lat job.’
2. Occurring, coming, or being after the due or customary time; delayed or deferred in time. Const. to with inf., and for. Frequently in the impers. phrase it is (too) late to do something.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke i. 21. Þæt folc wæs zachariam ʓeanbidiende & wundredon þæt he on þam temple læt wæs.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7824. It was þo to late ynou.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxix. (Placidas), 2. Lat penance is rycht perolouse. Ibid., xxxviii. (Adrian), 77. Ȝet wil I, þo it lat be, to criste and his treutht tak me.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 113 b. She aunswereth that it is to late nowe to examyne the licence, whiche so longe synce they had allowed.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 116. Thei begane to suspect, (albeit it was to lett).
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 108. So you to studie now it is too late.
1676. Lady Chaworth, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 33. A great snow with us makes the post so late that [etc.].
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Prior, Wks. III. 144. Of his behaviour in the lighter parts of life, it is too late to get much intelligence.
1816. A. C. Hutchison, Pract. Obs. Surg. (1826), 206. ‘Ah Pat, my boy, you are just in time to be too late.’
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 349. Their late repentance might perhaps give them a fair claim to pardon.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, I. iv. 58. The head-master … is waiting for you; marking you all late, of course.
1884. May Crommelin, Brown-Eyes, x. 102. The cab is at the door; don’t be late for the train.
b. Of plants, fruit, etc.: Flowering or ripening at an advanced season of the year.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 288/2. Late frute, sirotinus.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 184. The late Narcissus.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Flower, Autumnal or late Flowers, denotes those of September and October.
1796. C. Marshall, Gardening (1813), 405. Sow annuals of all sorts for a late blow.
1837. Macgillivray, Withering’s Brit. Plants (ed. 4), 332. Late Spider Orchis … Early Spider Orchis.
c. Of fruit, etc.: Backward in ripening. Of seasons: Prolonged or deferred beyond their due time. † dial. Of weather: Unseasonable.
1631. Milton, Sonn., Arriv. Age Twenty-three, 3. My late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.
1674–91. Ray, N. C. Words, s.v. Lat, Lat weather; wet or otherwise unseasonable weather.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., Lat,… (2) backward; ‘A lat spring.’
1887. S. Cheshire Gloss., s.v. Lat, ‘My wuts bin very lat this ‘ear.’
d. With agent-nouns and vbl. sbs. (For the syntactical relation, cf. EARLY a. 1 a note.)
Late comers in Fr. Hist. (transl. of F. tard-venus), the name given to troops of soldiers, who were disbanded after the treaty of Bretigny (1374) and overran and ravaged France (see quot. 1869).
c. 1430. How Wise Man taught Son, 69, in Babees Bk. Of late walking, comeþ debate.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 153. This is enough to be the decay of lust and late-walking through the Realme.
1612. Bacon, Ess., Custom (Arb.), 370. For it is true that late learners cannot so well take the plie.
1869. W. Longman, Hist. Edw. III., II. iv. 63. A cloud of Lorrainers, Brabanters, and Germans spread themselves over Champagne and the countries of the Upper Meuse, and these called themselves the ‘Tard venus,’ or late comers, ‘because they had not as yet much pillaged the kingdom of France.’
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, X. x. 387. The late-risers are rebels and sinners—in this respect—to a man.
1891. Conan Doyle, Cornh. Mag., Oct., 416. His whole life was spent in raids and outfalls upon the Brabanters, late-comers, flayers, [etc.].
1892. J. S. Fletcher, When Chas. I. was King (1896), 18. Then did late-comers, hearing the solitary bell, hurry their movements.
3. Advanced in point of time in the course of the day or night. (Frequent in the impers. phrase it is late = the time is advanced.) Phr. late hours: hours that encroach on the proper time for sleep. Hence colloq. of persons, in the sense ‘keeping late hours, rising or going to bed late.’
a. 1000. Andreas, 1210 (Gr.). Nis seo stund latu.
a. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 1433. Now es arly, now es late, Now es day, now es nyght.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VII. 236. It wes weill lat of nycht be then.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5051. Þar logis he fra þe late niȝt till efte þe liȝt schewis.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 244. ‘Quhat art thow walkis that gait?’ ‘A trew man, Schyr, thocht my wiagis be layt.’
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. i. 34. In silence, al the lait nycht [L. sera sub nocte] rummesand.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 240. To se … how late it was in the nyght yer the footemen coulde get ouer London brydge.
1634. Milton, Comus, 179. The rudenesse, and swill’d insolence of such late Wassailers.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 13. Without love, and wine, and play, and late hours we hold life not to be worth living.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 2/1. It being late, the Court adjourned till the next morning at seven o’clock.
1842. Tennyson, Vision Sin, 1. I had a vision when the night was late.
1870. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud., 367. The stunted brushwood, the late and pale sky.
1883. J. Hay, Bread-Winners, 82. Men whose weekly wages were habitually docked for drunkenness, late hours, and botchy work.
1897. ‘Ouida,’ Massarenes, xiv. We are all of us very late people.
fig. phrase. 1797. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1892, XIII. 411. It is too late in the day for me to see the result.
1824. Byron, Def. Transf., II. iii. 155. A sage reflection, But some what late i’ the day.
4. Belonging to an advanced stage in a period, the development of something, the history of a science, language, etc. Also occas. in partitive concord, the late portion of (a period, season).
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1879), 332. What meued þis late popes to make furst þis lawe … and god meued not crist ne hise vikers to sue it.
1583. Fulke, Defence, iii. 114. The late pettie Prelates of the seconde Nicene Councell.
1777. Sir W. Jones, Turkish Ode, x. Poems 93. Late gloomy winter chill’d the sullen air.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 31. Looked for at so late a day, in the last scene of such a senseless play. Ibid. (1784), Tiroc., 143. E’en in transitory life’s late day.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 141. The Chaldee of the late Scriptures of the Old Testament.
1849–52. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, III. i. 194, note. The ‘Dome,’ or last judgment, is shown in late but beautiful Flemish stained glass at Fairford.
1868. W. K. Parker, Shoulder-girdle & Sternun Vertebr., 185. The ossification of the sternum in the Hemipods is very late, as compared with the Fowl.
1888. Sweet, Hist. Eng. Sounds, § 609. 164. The late Latin hymn metres. Ibid., § 756. 200. 1800–1850 Early Living English. 1850–1900 Late Living English.
5. Of a person: That was alive not long ago, but is not now; recently deceased.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, vi. 28. Her swete and late amyable husbonde.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 10 b. The homecide of Thomas his uncle late duke of Glocester.
1570. Buchanan, Admonitioun, Wks. (S.T.S.), 22. Ye murthour of ye lait King Henry.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. vii. § 7. The late learned Rabbi Manasse Ben Israel.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iii. (1840), 84. Our late friend Jonathan.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxv. I did nothing but dream I saw my late lady’s ghost.
1838. Lytton, Alice, 23. I always call the late Lord Vargrave my father.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 5 Sept., 1/1. The remains of the late Lord Ampthill.
b. That was recently (what is implied by the sb.) but is not now. [App. developed from the use of LATE adv. 4 b.]
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 19 b. [He] maried Jane Duches of Britaine late wife to Jhon duke of Britaine. Ibid., Hen. VIII., 240. At the late Freers walle all men alyghted savyng the Kyng.
1689. Wood, Life, 7 Nov. A late Roman Catholic schoolmaster … hath embraced his former persuasion, viz. protestancy.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xxv. Our late dwelling.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 48. All the splendid furniture of his late residence.
1842. Macaulay, Ess., Fred. Gt. (1887), 717. He conceived himself secure from the power of his late master.
6. Recent in date; that has recently happened or occurred; recently made, performed, completed; of recent times; belonging to a recent period. Now Obs. of persons, and chiefly in phr. of late years.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 803. All things were in late dayes so covertly demeaned.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 168 b. The kynge … was than scarcely amended of a late disease.
1573. Satir. Poems Reform., xl. 210. Of lat ȝeiris.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., II. ii. 61. Who are the late Commissioners?
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 113. Ill matching words and deeds long past or late.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., 1 Tim. iii. 6. Not a late young Convert.
1711. Budgell, Spect., No. 161, ¶ 1. My late going into the Country has encreased the Number of my Correspondents.
1817. Coleridge, Biogr. Lit., 103. The late war, was a war produced by the Morning Post.
1838. Macaulay, Lett. to Napier, in Trevelyan, Life (1876), II. vii. 10. His late articles, particularly the long one in the April number, have very high merit. Ibid. (1849), Hist. Eng., vi. II. 104. During the late reign Johnson had published a book entitled Julian the Apostate.
1893. W. P. Courtney, in Academy, 13 May, 412/3. The public appetite for the consumption of memoirs has been wonderfully sharpened of late years.
7. colloq. Having to do with persons or things that arrive late.
Late mark, a mark indicating that a scholar is late for school; so late book, a book to contain such marks. Late fee, an increased fee paid in order to secure the dispatch of a letter posted after the advertised time of collection (earlier late-letter fee).
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, I. xv. 237. They escaped the ‘late’ mark.
1864. Brit. Postal Guide, Jan., 16. Upon payment of a late fee of fourpence.
1889. Skrine, Mem. E. Thring, i. 2. Excluded wretches … entered, and … wrote their names in the late-book.
B. absol. or quasi-sb.
† 1. Lateness, tardiness. Obs. rare.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 9679. The store was full stith, þen stynt þai for late. Ibid., 10913. All left þai for late & lackyng of Sun.
2. Of late: during a comparatively short time extending to the present; recently, lately.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 757. Sen I off laitt now come owt off the west In this cuntre.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 46. Sa mony jugeis and lordis now maid of lait.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, li. 172. Of late I haue lost my goode lorde and mayster.
1611. Bible, John xi. 8. Master, the Iewes of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither againe?
1644. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 121. Till of late that some of the stones were carried away to repair the city walls.
1716. Addison, Freeholder, No. 32, ¶ 2. Great Numbers of them [women] have of late eloped from their Allegiance.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 14. Since the Ladies of late have become students of Chemistry.
1845. Stephen, Comm. Laws Eng. (1874), II. 744. In modern times, and particularly of late, various alterations have been introduced.
