Lather

sb. Also 1 léađor, 7 ladder, lavour. [OE. léaðor str. neut. = ON. lauðr washing soda, foam (Sw. lodder soap):—OTeut. type *lauþro^m:—pre-Teut. *loutrom (= Gr. λοετρόν, λουτρόν bath, Irish loathar washing vessel), f. root *lou- to wash (= L. lavāre) + -tro- instrumental suffix.]

  1.  † a. (OE. only.) Washing soda. b. A froth or foam made by the agitation of a mixture of soap and water.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., III. 2. Leʓe on clað gnid in wæter gnid swiðe þæt heo sy eall ʓeleðred þweah mid þy leaðre þæt heafod ʓelome.

c. 1050.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 455/8. Nitria, þæt is of leaðre. Ibid., 456/14. Nitrum, leaðor.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 50. Then shall your mouth be bossed with the lather … (for they haue their sweete balles wherewith-all they vse to washe).

1669.  W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 335. I ordered the maid to put some of the usual soap thereto … and it made a very good lather (as they call it).

1677.  Compl. Servant-Maid, 64. Wash them very well in three Ladders.

1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 392. Take scalding hot water, and … with Newcastle soap beat and work up a clear lather.

1815.  Scott, Lett. to Dk. Buccleuch, Dec., in Lockhart. It looked like a shaving-brush, and the goblet might be intended to make the lather.

1873.  E. Smith, Foods, 279. Hard water … prevents the formation of a lather, until a large quantity of soap has been added.

  fig.  1725.  Bailey, Erasm. Colloq., 570. Such as by the Lather of Tears, and Soap of Repentance … have washed away their Pollutions.

  b.  transf. Violent perspiration, esp. the frothy sweat of a horse.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 143. I could not possibly bring forth a word … being all in a lavour with agony and distresse.

1828.  in Webster.

1837.  Mrs. Sherwood, H. Milner, III. v. Miss Bell had already exercised her [a mare] so well, that, to use a jockey term, she was all in a lather.

1883.  E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 238. The mare … was covered with lather.

  2.  The action of lathering or applying lather to.

1626.  Middleton, Women Beware W., II. ii. She’d … sponge up herself, And give her neck three lathers.

  3.  attrib. and Comb., as lather-bowl; lather-dried, -making adjs.; lather-boy, a boy employed in a barber’s shop to lather the chins of customers.

1856.  R. W. Procter, Barber’s Shop, xxi. (1883), 216. A *lather bowl.

1898.  Daily News, 9 Dec., 5/7. They were *‘lather boys to a barber.’

1852.  R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 294. Reining in the now *lather-dried brown.

c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, XI. 370. His *lather-making jaws.