Lake

Pronunciation

• UK enPR: lāk, IPA: /leɪk/
• Rhymes: -eɪk

From Middle English lake ("lake, watercourse, body of water"), from Old English lacu ("lake, pond, pool, stream, watercourse"), from Proto-Germanic *lakō, *lōkiz ("stream, pool, water aggregation", originally "ditch, drainage, seep"), from Proto-Germanic *lekaną ("to leak, drain"), from Proto-Indo-European *leg-, *leǵ- ("to leak"). Cognate with Scots lake ("pond, pool, flowing water of a stream"), Dutch laak ("lake, pond, stream"), Middle Low German lāke ("standing water, water pooled in a riverbed"), German Lache ("pool, puddle"), Icelandic lækur ("stream, brook, flow"). See also leak, leach.

Despite their similarity in form and meaning, English lake is not related to Latin lacus ("hollow, lake, pond"), Scottish Gaelic loch ("lake"), Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, "waterhole, tank, pond, pit"), all from Proto-Indo-European *lakʷ- ("lake, pool"). Instead, this root is represented by Old English lagu ("sea, flood, water, ocean"), through Proto-Germanic *laguz, *lahō ("sea, water"), perhaps related to Albanian lag ("to water, make wet, moisturize"). See lay.

Full definition of lake

Noun

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
2. A large, landlocked stretch of water.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
3. A large amount of liquid; as, a wine lake.
• 1991, Robert DeNiro (actor), Backdraft:So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?

Synonyms

Derived terms

From Middle English lake, lak, lac (also loke, laik, layke), from Old English lāc ("play, sport, strife, battle, sacrifice, offering, gift, present, booty, message"), from Proto-Germanic *laiką ("play, fight"), *laikaz ("game, dance, hymn, sport"), from Proto-Indo-European *loig-, *leig- ("to bounce, shake, tremble"). Cognate with Old High German leih ("song, melody, music") and Albanian luaj ("I move, play"). More at lay.

Noun

1. (obsolete) An offering, sacrifice, gift.
2. (dialectal) Play; sport; game; fun; glee.

Derived terms

• bridelock
• wedlock

Verb

1. (obsolete) To present an offering.
2. (chiefly dialectal) To leap, jump, exert oneself, play.

From Old English lachen

Noun

1. (obsolete) Fine linen.

From French laque ("lacquer"), from Persian لاک, from Hindi lakh, from Sanskrit laksha ("one hundred thousand"), referring to the number of insects that gather on the trees and make the resin seep out.

Noun

1. In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermillion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.

Derived terms

• lake-red

Verb

1. To make lake-red.

Compare lek.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To play; to sport.

Anagrams

• kale
• leak