Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A foam formed by soap or detergent agitated in water, as in washing or shaving.
- noun Froth formed by profuse sweating, as on a horse.
- noun Informal A condition of anxious or heated discomposure; agitation.
- intransitive verb To spread with or as if with lather.
- intransitive verb Informal To give a beating to; whip.
- intransitive verb To produce lather; foam.
- intransitive verb To become coated with lather.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A work-man who puts up laths for plaster-work.
- noun Foam, froth, or suds made from soap moistened with water, as by a brush for shaving.
- noun Foam or froth formed in profuse sweating, as of a horse.
- To form a foam or suds, as soap and water; become froth or frothy matter.
- To spread lather on or over; apply lather to, as the face in shaving.
- To flog; leather.
- noun A dialectal variant of
ladder .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Foam or froth made by soap moistened with water.
- noun Foam from profuse sweating, as of a horse.
- transitive verb Low To beat severely with a thong, strap, or the like; to flog.
- intransitive verb To form lather, or a froth like lather; to accumulate foam from profuse sweating, as a horse.
- transitive verb To spread over with lather.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
foam made by rapidlystirring soap and water. - noun A state of agitation.
- verb transitive To
cover with lather. - verb transitive To beat or to whip.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb rub soap all over, usually with the purpose of cleaning
- noun a workman who puts up laths
- noun the foam resulting from excessive sweating (as on a horse)
- noun the froth produced by soaps or detergents
- verb form a lather
- verb exude sweat or lather
- verb beat severely with a whip or rod
- noun agitation resulting from active worry
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lather.
Examples
-
She was in lather-sweat of fear, and stood trembling pitiably.
-
Since my guess is that you are in lather about this because you view ECB's article as an attack! on!
Subtexts « PubliCola 2010
-
The lather is dense, holds up and my skin felt baby soft when I was all toweled off.
Potato Soap!?! Anne-Marie 2008
-
"Your lather is getting cold," Billy Louise said evenly.
-
She was in lather-sweat of fear, and stood trembling pitiably.
Planchette 1906
-
Pierre L – getting myself into a lather is A Good Thing, but something might have been lost in translation there
glue 2007
-
As the latter process of removing the lather is the one universally adopted, the operation of washing with soap and hard water is analogous to that used by the dyer and calico printer for fixing pigments in calico, woolen, or silk tissues.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883 Various
-
I was wrong, I still massaged it into rich lather, which is suspicious.
-
My lather was a merchant* who, from the nature of his employment, was obliged to make repeated voyages: andj as he had neither leifure nor inclination to un«» dertake my education himfclf, he held it beft PEREGRINUS PROTEUS.
-
NOt to mention that calling it tasteless and offensive doesn't seem to qualify as being in a "lather" ...
stpeter commented on the word lather
Why do people get into such a lather over words like ain't?
January 14, 2007
wiredweird commented on the word lather
(rhymes with "hath fur") person who applies lath, e.g. to a wall
(rhymes with "bathe her") person who operates a lathe
(rhymes with "gather") foam
BTW, does anyone know any other spellings that have three or more different pronunciations?
September 30, 2007
uselessness commented on the word lather
There are three pronunciations of banal, but only one definition. It's just that nobody can agree on the "right" way to say it... is it "BAY null," "buh NAHL" or "buh NAWL?"
October 5, 2007