Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To seek; search for; inquire.
  • noun Lightning; flash.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, intransitive To seek; search for; inquire.
  • noun Lightning; flash of lightning; a flash.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English laiten, leiten, from Old Norse leita ("to seek, search, inquire"), from Proto-Germanic *wlaitōnan (“to look out, see”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to see”). Cognate with Icelandic leita ("to search"), Swedish leta ("to search, hunt, forage"), Old English wlātian ("to gaze, observe, look upon, behold").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lait, layt, leit, leyt, from Old English līġet, līġetu, līeġet ("lightning, flash of lightning"), from Proto-Germanic *laugiþō (“lightning”), from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“to shine”). Related to Old English līeġ ("fire, flame, lightning"). Compare also Old High German laugazan, lōhazan ("to be red, shine, sparkle"), Gothic  (lauhatjan, "to lighten"). More at lowe, light.

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Examples

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    mother-in-law 2010

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    sabot - French Word-A-Day 2005

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • S. France, where we were unexpectedly given a beautiful rose with our cafe au lait.

    acrostiche - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Pour cacher mon fou-rire, je pars faire chauffer du lait; j'apporte le beurre et des tartines de pain tout juste grillé.

    Lettres de ma Terrasse 2009

  • TAKING A SIP OF his café au lait, Field Agent Richard Purcell folded back the front page of the Times-Picayune and scanned the headlines.

    Etched in Bone Adrian Phoenix 2011

  • But as my niece is getting married in August, possibly on a family cruise to the Bahamas, I must refrain from les patates et oeufs regularly and be true to my cornflakes au lait 2%.

    et patati et patata - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • TAKING A SIP OF his café au lait, Field Agent Richard Purcell folded back the front page of the Times-Picayune and scanned the headlines.

    Etched in Bone Adrian Phoenix 2011

  • And like that, I sipped my café-au-lait and watched Jean-Claude point out rosy details in the old, dark photos.

    WWII soldiers remembrance 2009

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