Also 7 lentour. [ad. F. lenteur or L. lentor (sense 1), f. lentus slow.]
1. Of the blood, etc.: Clamminess, tenacity, viscidity. Now rare.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 900. All Matter whereof Creatures are produced by Putrefaction haue euermore a Closenesse, Lentour, and Sequacity.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., xiv. 486. In this Disease the whole Blood does not presently acquire that lentor or sliminess.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria, 36. Arborescent Holi-hocks … by reason of their clamminess and Lentor, banished from our Sallet.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 52. There is lentor and smoothness in the blood of healthy strong people.
1797. J. Downing, Disord. Horned Cattle, 3. This medicine … extinguishes the inflammatory lentor.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 560. That [hypothesis] of Boerhaave founded on the doctrine of a peculiar viscosity, or lentor of the blood.
† b. concr. A viscid component of the blood.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, II. viii. (1738), 38. A great deal of Lenter may undoubtedly be squeezed through the smallest vessels.
1722. Quincy, Lex. Phys.-Med. (ed. 2), Lentor hath been used … to express that sizy, viscid, coagulated Part of the Blood, which in malignant Fevers obstructs the capillary Vessels.
2. Slowness; want of vital activity.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Wks. & Lett. (1768), II. 228. Persons of a phlegmatic constitution have … a lentor which wine may naturally remove.
1779. J. Lovell in J. Adams’ Wks. (1854), IX. 487. Nor can I omit to call to your mind … that the lentor of proceedings here should account for the appearances of injustice done you.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., IV. 297/1. The extreme lentor of all their [serpents’] digestive functions.
