Lime sb.¹

Forms: 1 lím, 1, 3 liim, 3, 7 lim, 3–7 lym, 3–8 lyme, (4 liym), 3– lime. [OE. lím str. masc. = MDu. lîm masc. (mod.Du. lijm fem.), OHG. lîm (MHG. lîm, mod.G. leim) masc., ON. lím neut.:—OTeut. *lîmo- = L. līmus mud, f. WAryan root *lĭ- in L. li-nĕre to smear; another grade of the root occurs in LOAM, LAIR sb.²]

  1.  A viscous sticky substance prepared from the bark of the holly and used for catching small birds; = BIRDLIME. Now only poet. (In OE. any adhesive substance, e.g., glue, paste.)

a. 700.  Epinal Gloss., 133. Bitumen, lim.

a. 1000.  Ælfric, Colloq., in Wr.-Wülcker, 95. Ic beswice fuʓelas hwilon mid neton mid grinum mid lime. Ibid. (c. 1000), Gram. (Z.), 258. Swaswa lim ʓefæstnað fel to sumum brede.

a. 1225.  O. & N., 1056 (Jesus MS.). Þe louerd … Lym [Cott. liim] and grune … Sette and leyde þe for to lacche.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 29082. Mani man … perist was als fuxl in lime.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 305/1. Lyme, to take wythe byrdys, viscus.

1565–6.  Churchw. Acc. St. Martin’s, Leicester (1866), 166. For Lyme to catche y^e sterlyngs in y^e churche, vij^d.

a. 1600.  Montgomerie, Misc. P., xxi. 34. I fand My fethers in the lyme.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 211. Toils for Beasts, and Lime for Birds were found.

1697.  Phil. Trans., XIX. 377. The Bark [of Holly] begins to be full of Lime.

1835.  Wordsw., Poems, Summer of 1833, iii. (W.). Like the lime Which foolish birds are caught with.

  b.  in allusive phrases (cf. LIME v.¹ 2, 3).

13[?].  K. Alis., 419. Heo bylevith in folie So in the lym doth the flye.

1477.  Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 83. For Fier with Erth hath most concord of all; Because that siccitie is the lyme of heate.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., III. ii. 68. You must lay lime to tangle her desires By walefull Sonnets.

1592.  Lodge, Euphues Shadow (1882), 20. Philamour that was first caught in the lime, was most of all tormented in his loue.

1604.  Earl Stirling, Paraenesis to Pr. Henry, xxviii. While fancies are not glu’de with pleasures lime.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 246. Monster, come put some Lime vpon your fingers, and away with the rest.

  2.  Usually coupled with stone: Mortar or cement used in building In quot. a. 1225 fig. Now Sc.

c. 725.  Corpus Gloss., C 320. Cementum: liim, lapidum.

a. 1100.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 314/23. Cementum, lim to wealle.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 16284. Þatt draȝhenn swerd wass inn an hannd, & lim & stan inn oþerr.

c. 1205.  Lay., 15818. Ich habbe lim & stan on leode nis betere nan.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 226. So ueste ilimed mid lim of ancre luue euerichon of on to oðer.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2552. Ðo sette sundri hem to waken His tiȝel and lim, and walles maken.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 25468. Castel mad o lime and stane.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 209. Þe churche is taken … for þe hous of liym and stoon, þat conteyneþ sich men.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 5088. Þar was a cite in þat side asisid all with gemmes, With-outen lyme or laire.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, XI. 680. Mudwall werk withoutyn lym or stayn.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 26. King Richard lyes Within the limits of yond Lime and Stone.

1745.  Sir J. Ware, Wks. conc. Irel., I. 127. Those slender round Towers of Lime and Stone, which are seen spread through divers Parts of the Country.

1786.  Burns, Twa Brigs, 101. Your ruin’d, formless bulk o’ stane and lime.

1827.  W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d, I. 25. Throu’ the thick stane and the lime, He slippit like a beam throu’ glass.

Mod. Sc.  A stane-an’-lime wa’ is better nor a dry-stane dyke.

  3.  The alkaline earth which is the chief constituent of mortar; calcium oxide (CaO). It is obtained by submitting limestone (carbonate of lime) to a red heat, by which the carbonic acid is driven off, leaving a brittle white solid, which is pure lime (or QUICK-LIME). It is powerfully caustic and combines readily with water, evolving great heat in the process, and forming hydrate of lime (slaked lime).

  The designations carbonate, phosphate etc. of lime are still current in popular use, though in technical language they have given place to the more systematic terms calcium carbonate (or carbonate of calcium), etc. Chloride of lime: see CHLORIDE 2.

a. 1000.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 197/16. Calcis uiua, ʓebærnd lim.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxiii. (1495), 560. Whyle lyme is colde in handlyng it conteyneth preuely wythin fyre and grete hete.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 122. Caste aboue þe wounde þe poudre of lym tofore seid.

c. 1450.  ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich), 217. Tak arpment, & slekyd lyme, & argoyle.

1535.  Coverdale, Isa. xxxiii. 11. The people shal be burnt like lyme.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 137. You Rogue, heere’s Lime in this Sacke too.

1622.  R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea, xliii. 103. Since the Spanish Sacks haue beene common in our Tauernes, which (for conservation) is mingled with Lyme in its making, our Nation complaineth of Calenturas, of the Stone [etc.].

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 137. They were now (like Sand without Lyme), ill bound together.

1787.  Winter, Syst. Husb., 32. Lime, when properly and judiciously applied, ranks first amongst the class of manures.

1816.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 488. Lime is detected most effectually by the oxalic acid, which … forms with it an insoluble precipitate.

1837.  Whittock, etc., Bk. Trades (1842), 130. Lime is found in chalk, marble, &c., and is the basis of animal bones.

1839.  Penny Cycl., XIII. 489/1. Phosphate of lime has been recommended in rickets.

  † b.  = lime-wash. Obs. ?

1593[?].  Rites of Durham (Lawson MS. 1656), xxxix. Which pictures have been washed over w^th Lime, and yet do appear through the Lime.

  c.  Lime and hair: a kind of plasterer’s cement to which hair is added to bind the mixture closely together. Also attrib.

1626.  Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 181. For lyme and haire for lymeinge the wyndowes, viijd.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 46. Lime and Haire Birdcage-like-Buildings.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 640. Cements … used by plasterers for inside work. The first is called lime and hair, or coarse stuff.

  † d.  Oil of lime [F. huile de chaux]: an old name for the so-called ‘chloride of lime’ in a state of deliquescence.

1471.  Ripley, Comp. Alch., Adm. vii. in Ashm. (1652), 191. Oyle of Lime [printed Lune] and water.

1742.  Phil. Trans., XLII. 76.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 275.

  † 4.  a. The CALX of metals. b. Used generically for: An alkaline earth. Obs.

1707.  Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 225. Metals, after they are reduc’d into Lime.

1796.  Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 5. When this [aerial, i.e., carbonic] acid is expelled, the earth … is then called lime, or common or calcareous lime, to distinguish it from other earths, which also form limes, when free from all combinations, viz. the Barytic and Scottish earths.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as lime-basket, -burn, † -coop (dial.), -crag, † -fat, -keeve, -maker, -man, -merchant, -mortar, -process, † quarrel, quarrier, quarry, -salt, -scow, -scuttle; lime-daubed, -dressed, -like adjs.; lime-ash dial., a composition of ashes and lime used as a rough kind of flooring for kitchens, etc.; lime-ball (light), limelight; † lime-bush, a bush dressed with birdlime; hence, a means of entanglement; lime-cartridge (see quot.); lime-cast, a covering or layer of lime mortar; also attrib.; † lime-chalk, quicklime; lime-coal (see quot.); † lime-core, unslakable lumps in quick-lime; lime-cylinder, a cylinder of lime used in the production of limelight; lime-liniment (see quot.); lime-liquid, liquid grout of lime; lime-marl (see quot.); lime-milk, milk of lime, slaked lime diffused in water; lime ointment, an ointment consisting of slaked lime, lard, and olive oil (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1888); lime-phial Antiq., a phial filled with quicklime, fixed at the end of an arrow, used in mediæval warfare for the purpose of blinding the enemy (Hewitt, Anc. Armour, III. 759, Index; cf. Strutt, Horda Angelcynnan, I. 98); lime-putty. (a) (see quot.); (b) = lime-slab; lime-rock, limestone (? now U.S.); lime-rubbish, broken mortar from old walls, etc., used as a dressing for land; lime-shells, burnt lime before it is slaked; lime-sink, a rounded depression in the earth found in limestone districts; lime-slab, a pasty smooth composition of slaked lime and water used in plastering; lime-sour = grey sour, see GREY a. 8 (Cent. Dict.); lime-wash sb., a mixture of lime and water, used for coating walls, etc.; vb., to whitewash with such a mixture; lime-white, -whiten vbs., to lime-wash; lime-work, † (a) stucco (quot. 1589); (b) a place where lime is made (Also pl.); † lime-yard = LIME-TWIG. Also LIME-BURNER, LIME-FINGERED a., LIME-KILN, LIMELIGHT, LIME-PIT, LIME-POT, LIME-ROD, LIMESTONE, LIME-TWIG, LIME-WATER, LIME-WORT¹, etc.

1813.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 96. The *lime ash-floor … costs 6d. in the square yard, tempering and laying down.

1893.  ‘Q.’ [Quiller-Couch], Delect. Duchy, 195. Their clothes dripping pools of water on the sanded lime-ash.

1830.  Drummond, in Phil. Trans., CXX. 391. The intensity of the *lime-ball being therefore 264 times that of the Argand lamp.

1835.  Edin. Rev., LXI. 238. The lime-ball light of Lieutenant Drummond.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xviii. Mr. Chitling wished he might be busted if he warn’t as dry as a *lime-basket.

1879.  St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 538. The 2 *lime-burns occurred in plasterers.

1577.  Fenton, Gold. Epist., 91. No other things are the riches of the worlde, but … a stumbling blocke for the wicked, a *limebush for the good.

a. 1640.  Day, Peregr. Schol. (1881), 53. Like a fishe in a net or a selie bird in a limebushe.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, *Lime cartridge, a charge or measured quantity of compressed dry caustic lime made up into a cartridge, and used instead of gunpowder and in a somewhat similar manner for breaking down coal.

1861.  Neale, Notes Dalmatia, etc. 96. Here, much hidden by *lime-cast, I made out the inscription.

1873.  O’Curry, Mann. Anc. Irish, III. 16. Many lofty lime-cast castles, built of limestone.

1637.  Heywood, Dial., Anna & Phillis, Wks. 1874, VI. 320. Water doth make the *lime-chalk scortch with heat.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, *Lime coal, small coal suitable for lime burning.

1674–91.  Ray, Collect. Words, 38. Coop, as, a muck-coop, a *lime-coop; a cart, or wain, made close with boards, to carry anything that otherwise would fall out.

1679.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 128. Good dry Earth, *Lime-Core, Rubbish, &c.

1649.  Burgh. Rec. Glasgow (1881), II. 177. Anent the coall and *lymecraig it is ordourit [etc.].

1871.  trans. Schellen’s Spectr. Anal., ix. 64. Let the *lime-cylinders then be raised to incandescence by means of the oxyhydrogen gas.

1861.  W. F. Collier, Hist. Eng. Lit., 105. As sorry makeshifts for scenery as the *lime-daubed tinker who acted Wall.

1899.  J. W. Mackail, Life W. Morris, I. 279. The English *lime-dressed vellum had been found almost useless for fine work.

1494.  Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 19. Cussions, stuffed with horse here [etc.], which is wrought in *lyme fattes.

1574.  in Worth, Tavistock Par. Acc. (1887), 30. For mending of the *lyme Keve, vjd.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 141. A salt taste, with something *lime-like or lixivial.

1876.  Harley, Mat. Med. (ed. 6), 173. *Lime Liniment is an emulsion of calcareous soap and free oil.

1776.  G. Semple, Building in Water, 78. Filling … the inside with small Stones, and *Lime-liquid.

1573.  Baret, Alv., L 441. A *limemaker, calcarius.

1723.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6128/3. Edward Brent, Lime-maker.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, etc., 772. This true limestone must not be confounded with the *lime-marl, composed of calcareous matter and clay.

1703.  T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 208. Many *Lime-men, (and some of those Bricklayers that are in Fee with ’em) may speak against this Practice.

1710.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4789/4. William Ball,… *Lyme-Merchant.

1703.  T. S., Art’s Improv., I. 10. Whiten it Three or Four times together with *Lime-Milk.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 275. Smeared over with common *lime mortar.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, *Lime process, the method of getting coal by the use of the lime cartridge.

1888.  Syd. Soc. Lex., Lime process of sewage purification.

1892.  Labour Commission Gloss., *Lime-putty, ordinary lime run through a fine sieve.

1641.  Sc. Acts Chas. I. (1870), V. 452/1. To haue and win Lymestones in the *lyme quarrells, pairtis and boundis of the Toune and Landis of Paistoun [etc.].

1753.  Scots Mag., XV. 52/1. John Potty, a *lime-quarrier.

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Consid. to Parlt., Wks. (1711), 187. That coal-pits, *lime-quarries, within fourty foots of the king’s high-ways, be filled up.

1882.  ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 34. The lime quarries of Alberese.

1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 547. A dry sharp soil to work upon mostly covering *lime rock.

1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 270. *Lime rubbish from the pulling down of old houses.

1884.  Sutton, Cult. Veget. & Fl. (1885), 88. Old gardens should be refreshed with a dressing of lime occasionally, or of lime rubbish from old buildings.

1849.  D. Campbell, Inorg. Chem., 71. A salt of this acid gives, in *lime salts, a semi-solid precipitate.

1823.  J. F. Cooper, Pioneer, xxiii. (1869), 99/2. Did’ee ever see a ship, man? or any craft bigger than a *lime-scow, or a wood-boat, on this here small bit of fresh water?

1865.  F. Martin, Life J. Clare, 62. He sat down upon his *lime-scuttle.

1793.  Statist. Acc. Scot., VI. 202. To strong land they give from 40 to 70 bolls of *lime shells to the Scotch acre.

1845.  Lyell, Trav. N. Amer., I. 176. *Lime-sinks or funnel-shaped cavities, are frequent in this country arising from natural tunnels and cavities in the subjacent limestone.

1608–9.  in Swayne, Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896), 305. Barrowefull *lyme slabb 6d.

1541.  Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 176. Ane skep, ane schod schuill, with ane *lym tub.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 168. Old Fruit Trees … may be restored … by the application of a good strong *lime-wash.

1847.  Smeaton, Builder’s Man., 126. In using lime-wash, it is better to put two thin coats on a wall than one thick one.

1869.  E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 305. The walls and ceilings are ordered to be *lime-washed twice a-year.

1777.  Howard, Prisons Eng. (1780), 359. It was scraped and *lime-whited once a year.

1861.  Eng. Wom. Dom. Mag., III. 221. The walls were *lime-whitened.

1589.  Rider, Bibl. Scholast., 870. *Lime-worke, albarium opus, albarium.

1692.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2829/1. Since the destroying of the Lime-Works by our Dragoons.

1808.  J. Robertson, Agric. Surv. Inverness, i. 41. A lime-work belonging to Sir James Grant of Grant.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. IX. 179. Leccherye in likyng is *lymeȝerde of helle.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 305/1. Lyme ȝerde, viminarium, viscarium.

  b.  In names of minerals, denoting the presence of lime or calcium, e.g., lime-marl, -slate; lime-epidote, zoisite; lime-feldspar, triclinic feldspar containing calcium; † lime-harmotome, phillipsite; lime-malachite, an impure malachite containing calcite; † lime-mesotype, scolecite; † lime-uranite, autunite; lime-wavellite, ‘a variety of wavellite, supposed to contain lime as an essential ingredient’ (A. H. Chester, Dict. Min., 1896).

1862.  Dana, Man. Geol., 56. Labradorite, or *lime-feldspar.

1896.  Chester, Names Min., 157. Lime-feldspar, a syn. of anorthite.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 772. This true limestone must not be confounded with the *lime-marl, composed of calcareous matter and clay.

1811.  Pinkerton, Petral., II. 192. Saussure has minutely described a singular transition from granite to *limeslate.