Library / English Dictionary

LASH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A quick blow delivered with a whip or whiplike object

Example:

the whip raised a red welt

Synonyms:

lash; whip; whiplash

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("lash" is a kind of...):

blow (a powerful stroke with the fist or a weapon)

Derivation:

lash (strike as if by whipping)

lash (beat severely with a whip or rod)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Leather strip that forms the flexible part of a whip

Synonyms:

lash; thong

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("lash" is a kind of...):

leather strip (implement consisting of a strip of leather)

Holonyms ("lash" is a part of...):

whip (an instrument with a handle and a flexible lash that is used for whipping)

Derivation:

lash (strike as if by whipping)

lash (beat severely with a whip or rod)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of the short curved hairs that grow from the edges of the eyelids

Synonyms:

cilium; eyelash; lash

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("lash" is a kind of...):

hair (a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss)

Holonyms ("lash" is a part of...):

eyelid; lid; palpebra (either of two folds of skin that can be moved to cover or open the eye)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bind with a rope, chain, or cord

Example:

lash the horse

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "lash" is one way to...):

bind; tie (fasten or secure with a rope, string, or cord)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lash"):

frap (make secure by lashing)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

unlash (untie the lashing of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strike as if by whipping

Example:

The curtain whipped her face

Synonyms:

lash; whip

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "lash" is one way to...):

strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lash"):

urticate (whip with or as with nettles)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

lash (a quick blow delivered with a whip or whiplike object)

lash (leather strip that forms the flexible part of a whip)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Beat severely with a whip or rod

Example:

The children were severely trounced

Synonyms:

flog; lash; lather; slash; strap; trounce; welt; whip

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "lash" is one way to...):

beat; beat up; work over (give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lash"):

flagellate; scourge (whip)

leather (whip with a leather strap)

horsewhip (whip with a whip intended for horses)

switch (flog with or as if with a flexible rod)

cowhide (flog with a cowhide)

cat (beat with a cat-o'-nine-tails)

birch (whip with a birch twig)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to lash the prisoners

Derivation:

lash (a quick blow delivered with a whip or whiplike object)

lash (leather strip that forms the flexible part of a whip)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lash or flick about sharply

Example:

The lion lashed its tail

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "lash" is one way to...):

sway; swing (move or walk in a swinging or swaying manner)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

He sprang up and lashed at his horses.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Dogs of England, must ye be lashed hence? Tiphaine, my sword!”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His eyes were large and blue, with brown lashes; his high forehead, colourless as ivory, was partially streaked over by careless locks of fair hair.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It is a most uncommon complexion, with her dark eye-lashes and hair—a most distinguishing complexion!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

You will allow me, as a private individual, to decline pursuing a subject which has lashed me to the utmost verge of desperation in my professional capacity.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Other possible causes include corneal abrasion, corneal ulcer, inturned eye lash or acute conjunctivitis.

(Foreign Body Sensation, NCI Thesaurus)

It was an odious face—crafty, vicious, malignant, with shifty, light-grey eyes and white lashes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thorpe only lashed his horse into a brisker trot; the Tilneys, who had soon ceased to look after her, were in a moment out of sight round the corner of Laura Place, and in another moment she was herself whisked into the marketplace.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Now that arrangement was not conducive to calm speech or clear thought on Jo's part, for how could she say hard things to her boy while he watched her with eyes full of love and longing, and lashes still wet with the bitter drop or two her hardness of heart had wrung from him?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Sometimes they were the expressive eyes of Henry, languishing in death, the dark orbs nearly covered by the lids and the long black lashes that fringed them; sometimes it was the watery, clouded eyes of the monster, as I first saw them in my chamber at Ingolstadt.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)