Obs. Forms: 1 láð, (laað), 2–4 lath(e, 4–6 loth(e, 4, 6 Sc. and north. laith, 6– loath(e. [OE. láð, orig. neut. of láð LOATH a. In sense 2 from the vb. LOATHE. (Cf. LETH.)]
1. Something hateful or harmful; evil, harm, injury; an annoyance, a trouble.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., V. vi. (Schipper), 576. Eala; hwæt þu me mycel yfel and lað dest mid þinre ærninge.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 74. Ðonne bið þæs innoðes sar settende & liðiʓende, þæt hit sona næniʓ lað ne bið.
c. 1205. Lay., 16073. Nu þu most þat lað on-fon.
c. 1300. Havelok, 76. Wo so dede hem wrong or lath,… He dede hem sone to hauen ricth.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxiv. (Alexis), 308. Þat na man did hyme lath.
a. 1400. Sir Perc., 1935. To do that lady no lothe That pendid to velany.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xvi. 9. Harmes shall ye hent And lothes you to lap.
2. Dislike, hatred, ill-will; in later use, in physical sense, disgust, loathing. Also to have in loath.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 157. Men schedden hate teres for laþe of þe worlde.
c. 1200. Ormin, 11887. To shildenn þe wiþþ all hiss laþ.
a. 1240. Sawles Warde, in Cott. Hom., 255. Ich mei … warnin ow of his lað.
a. 1330. Otuel, 603. Eyther forȝaf oþer his loþ.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 458. Be now lathe or lette, ryghte as þe thynkes.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., st. 818. Ever bytwyne hem was hate & loth.
1508. Dunbar, Poems, vi. 28. Det michi modo ad potandum And I forgif him laith et wraith.
1589. R. Bruce, Serm. (1843), 129. We are come to such a loath, disdain and off casting of this heavenlie food.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 301. If your Horse … grow to a loath of his meat.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1623), 141. They are by experience found to breede loathe in the Birds.
1669. Flamsteed, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 84. What then hath cast us behind them? not our want of wits, but loathe of pains.
1728. P. Walker, Life Peden (1827), 113. O Scotland, many long and great shall thy Judgments be of all kinds … for Loth and Contempt of the Gospel.
