Obs. exc. arch. or dial. Forms: 1 leoð, 1–4 lið, 3–6, 9 lithe, 3–6 lyth, 4 liþþe, 5 leth, lythe, 5, 7, 9 leith, 6 lethe, 4– lith. [OE. liþ neut. = OFris. lith, lid neut., OS. lið masc. (Du. lid neut.), OHG. lid masc. and neut., ON. lið-r masc. (Sw. and Da. led masc.), Goth. liþus masc.:—OTeut. *liþu-:—pre-Teut. *litu- f. root *lĭ-: see LIMB sb. A compound of this word with the prefix ga- (= Y-) is OHG. gilid (G. glied limb, member).]
1. A limb. Lith from lith, † from lith to lith: limb from limb.
a. 900. Cynewulf, Crist, 1032 (Gr.). Sceal þonne anra ʓehwylc … leoðum onfon & lichoman.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxx[i]. (Schipper), 534. He wæs byʓendlic on þam ʓeþeodnessum his liþa [v.rr. leoða, lima].
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl. (Kölbing), 8494. Wawains breþer on & oþer smiten euerich lib fram oþer.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 99. Sche hath no lith withoute a lak.
c. 1410. Sir Cleges, 292. I schall the bette euery leth, Hede and body, wythout greth.
c. 1430. Life St. Kath. (1884), 53. To make al hir body to be rent lyth from lyth.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), I. vi. 38/1. The horryble wheles whiche the tyraunt Maxencius ordeyned to rente her from lyth to lyth.
1732. E. Erskine, Serm., Wks. 1871, II. 177. Everything was in its proper joint and lith, subservient unto the great end of their creation.
2. A joint; frequent in lith and limb, etc.; also lith and bone. Out of lith: out of joint.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 242. On ðone lið þæra eaxla.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 626. He ne hauen no lið ðat he muȝen risen wið.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12612. Weri was sco bath lith and ban.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxiv. (Alexis), 518. Quhat sek mane þat twechit hym, His hele he gat in lith and lyme.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, III. xiv. Allas syr sayd the lady myn arme is oute of lythe.
15[?]. How Gd. Wyfe taught Dau., 38, in Q. Eliz. Acad., 45. Loke þou mekly ansuere hym, And meue hym noþer lyth ne lymme.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), ii. 135. Thow art moir lerge of lyth and lym Nor I am, be sic thre.
1718. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., III. xxiv. Ilka member, lith and lim.
a. 1782. Ld. Auchinleck, in Croker’s Boswell (1831), III. 79, note. God, doctor! he gart kings ken that they had a lith in their neck.
1828. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXIV. 683. I … finally sunk away into voluptuous diffusion of lith and limb on that celestial sofa.
a. 1828. Bonny Bows o Lond., xvii. in Child, Ballads, I. 135/2. He’s taen a lith o her little finger bane.
b. fig. esp. in phrase to hit the lith or to hit upon the lith, an expression borrowed from carving.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 262. Þus, lo þe articles, þet beoð, ase þauh me seide, þe liðes of ure bileaue onont Godes monheade.
1637. Rutherford, Lett. (1862), I. 221. To hold off an erroneous conclusion in the least wing or lith of sweet sweet truth.
1727. P. Walker, Life Peden, in Biogr. Presb., I. 122. And seldom hit upon the right lith or joint. Ibid., 140. Of late, I have heard some liths and nicks of the Gospel made plain.
c. The last joint or tip (of the finger).
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Luke xvi. 24. Send lazarum þæt he dyppe his fingres lið on wætere & mine tungan ʓehæle.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxix. A scar abune the brow, that ye might hae laid the lith of your finger in.
3. Sc. A division (of an orange, etc.); one of the rings surrounding the base of a cow’s horn.
1795. G. Robertson, Agric. Surv. Mid-Lothian, 155. The horns (of the Mysore cow in particular) are without annulets, or liths as we call them.
1857. J. P. Nichol, Cycl. Phys. Sci., 183/2 (Ogilv.). The reader will at once comprehend the reason by cutting an orange through its centre obliquely to its axis. Each lith is of equal size, but the exposed surface of each on the freshly cut circle will not be so.
1890. H. Drummond, in Life, xv. (1899), 376. A green banana leaf … wound once round the head after being cut into four or five ‘liths.’
