[ad. L. lax-us loose; cogn. w. languēre to LANGUISH, and prob. also with Teut. *slako- SLACK a.]
1. Of the bowels: Acting easily, loose. † Of a person: Having the bowels unduly relaxed.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xiv. 152. Men putten it [manna] in Medicynes for riche men, to make the Wombe lax, and to purge evylle Blode.
1530. Palsgr., 317/1. Laxe as one that hath the flyxe or squyrte, foyreux.
a. 1776. R. James, Dissert. Fevers (1778), 110. I do not neglect on these occasions, proper evacuations by bleeding, and keeping the body somewhat lax.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 188. The bowels lax.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 37. A moderately lax state of the bowels lessens the risk of worse consequences from dentition.
2. Slack; not tense, rigid or tight. Hence of bodily constitution or mental powers: Wanting in ‘tone’ or tension. Now somewhat rare.
1660. trans. Amyraldus’ Treat. conc. Relig., II. i. 154. The springs are some too stiffe, and others too laxe.
1669. Holder, Elem. Speech, 129. Though their outward Ear be stopt by the Laxe Membrane to all Sounds that come that way.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 409. Especially Mothers of a weak lax Constitution.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 85, ¶ 7. That neither the Faculties of the one [the mind] nor of the other [the body] be suffered to grow lax or torpid for Want of Use.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 339. When it attacks the tender and delicate, or persons of a weak lax fibre.
1842. Abdy, Water Cure (1843), 64. Abdomen soft, lax, and without inequalities.
b. Of the limbs, attitude: Relaxed, without muscular tension. rare.
1832. L. Hunt, Hero & Leander, II. 89. His tossing hands are lax.
1887. D. C. Murray & Herman, One Traveller Returns, vi. 91. He fell back in his chair and lay lax with closed eyes and arms loosely hanging.
c. Of attachment or connection of any kind: Weak in force, easily dissolved.
1782. Kirwan, in Phil. Trans., LXXII. 216. Nitrous air where the union of phlogiston to the acid is of the laxest kind.
3. a. Of organic tissue, stone, soils, etc.: Loose in texture; loosely cohering or compacted; porous.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 206. That it may firme, stay, and as it were knit together his soft and laxe flesh.’
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., I. xi. (1712), 34. This lax pith or marrow in Man’s head.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1692), 127. The flesh of this sort of Fish being lax and spungy, and nothing so firm, solid and weighty as that of the bony Fishes.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, II. (1723), 77. Not only in the more lax, Chalk, Clay, and Marle, but even in the most solid, Stone.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., 62. Some [delight] in a lax or sandy, some a heavy or clayie Soil.
1746. Simon, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 314. Wood, Vegetables, or any other lax Bodies … whose Pores, being open [etc.].
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., I. 295, note. Da Costa … mentions the whet-stone of Derbyshire as of a lax texture, easily pervaded by water.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 11/1. The psoas muscle is covered with a lax … cellular tissue.
1873. T. H. Green, Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2), 191. Those organs which possess a lax structure … as the lungs.
1875. Lyell’s Princ. Geol., I. I. ii. 225. Their stems had also a lax tissue.
b. Bot. ‘Said of parts which are distant from each other, with an open arrangement, such as the panicle among the kinds of inflorescence’ (Treas. Bot., 1866).
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 294. [Equisetum palustre] Sheaths larger and more lax than those of E. arvense.
1837. Macgillivray, Withering’s Brit. Pl. (ed. 4), 18. The Panicle … presents the following varieties: Loose or Lax, when the stalks are distant.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., iv. (1858), 32. Racemes lax when in fruit.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 591. Pinnules oblique, arcuate, lax.
1877–84. F. E. Hulme, Wild Fl., p. viii. Flowers in a lax spike, purple, at times fragrant.
4. Of clothes: Loose-fitting, worn loosely. Of persons: Negligent in attire and deportment. Of handwriting: Not compact; also, careless, not precise. nonce-uses.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. III. iii. (1651), 474. They … hurt and crucifie themselves, sometimes in laxe clothes, an hundred yards I think in a gown, a sleeve.
1783. Cowper, Lett., 7 March, Life & Wks. (1836), II. 120. Your manuscript indeed is close, and I do not reckon mine very lax.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Theatre, 71. Lax in their gaiters, laxer in their gait.
1885. W. M. Rossetti, Athenæum, 6 May, 641/3. The German character for str … would be considerably like that for w...; in rapid or lax handwriting the two might be almost identical.
5. Of rules, discipline, conduct, observance: Loose, slack, not strict or severe. Of ideas, interpretation, etc.: Loose, vague, not precise or exact. Said also of the agent (in both uses).
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, I. xxv. 37. He þat euermore sekiþ po þinges þat are most laxe and most remisse, shal euer be in anguissh.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 187. If the Queen … can be moved … to take vow of chastity, or enter in laxe religion.
1671. True Nonconf., 115. As for this your Laxe acceptation of a professed indifferency in externals.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. vi. Wks. 1874, I. 113. In a lax way of speaking.
1755. Jortin, Diss., vi. 260. The word æternus itself is sometimes of a lax signification.
1770. Burke, Pres. Discont., Wks. 1842, I. 146. Under the lax and indeterminate idea of the honour of the crown.
1803. R. Hall, Wks. (1833), I. 160. A lax theology is the natural parent of a lax morality.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Imperfect Sympathies. The custom of resorting to an oath … is apt … to introduce into the laxer sort of minds the notion of two kinds of truth.
1840. Macaulay, Ess., Ranke (1851), II. 136. To this enthusiastic neophyte their discipline seemed lax and their movements sluggish.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 43. I was a lax and negligent attendant.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 570. The oath of allegiance, the Whigs said, was drawn in terms far too lax.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 86. The execution of justice was as lax in practice as it was severe in theory.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. iv. 68. Writers possessing extremely lax notions of the laws of evidence.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 10. 581. Richard [Cromwell] was known to be lax and godless in his conduct.
1884. Manch. Exam., 18 June, 4/7. They were lax in their attendance, losing perhaps one or two days … per week.
1884. Ld. Coleridge, in Law Rep., 12 Q. Bench Div. 327. Towards the close of his life the practice of the Court became somewhat easier and laxer.
b. said of versification.
1749. Power Pros. Numbers, 47. If the antient Poetry was too lax in its Numbers, the modern is certainly too strict.
1817. Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 161. The lax and easy kind of metre in which it was written.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., II. viii. 145. The lax metre and versification resembling those of the second order of French tales in verse.
6. quasi-adv. So as to have ample room. [A Latinism: cf. LAXITY 4]
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 162. Mean while inhabit laxe, ye Powers of Heav’n. [Cf. Cicero De domo sua xliv. 115 Habitare laxe et magnifice voluit.]
7. Comb., as lax-fibred, -flowered adjs.
1761. Pulteney, in Phil. Trans., LII. 353. Women, children, and weakly men … are lax-fibred.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 210. Lax-flowered Orchis.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 356. Aceras anthropophora,… Spike lax-flowered.
