Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Lawn
Lawn
(la̤n)
, Noun.
[OE.
laund
, launde
, F. lande
heath, moor; of Celtic origin; cf. W. llan
an open, clear place, llawnt
a smooth rising hill, lawn, Armor. lann
or lan
territory, country, lann
a prickly plant, pl. lannou
heath, moor.] 1.
An open space between woods.
Milton.
“Orchard
lawns
and bowery hollows.” Tennyson.
2.
Ground (generally in front of or around a house) covered with grass kept closely mown.
Lawn mower
, a machine for clipping the short grass of lawns.
– Lawn tennis
, a variety of the game of tennis, played in the open air, sometimes upon a lawn, instead of in a tennis court. See
Tennis
.Lawn
,Noun.
[Earlier
laune lynen
, i. e., lawn linen
; prob. from the town Laon
in France.] A very fine linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric with a rather open texture. Lawn is used for the sleeves of a bishop’s official dress in the English Church, and, figuratively, stands for the office itself.
A saint in crape is twice a saint in
lawn
. Pope.
Webster 1828 Edition
Lawn
LAWN
,Noun.
An open space between woods, or a plain in a park or adjoining a noble seat.
Betwixt them lawns or level downs, and flocks grazing the tender herbs, were interspers'd.
LAWN
,Noun.
A sort of fine linen. Its use in the sleeves of bishops, explains the following line.
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
LAWN
,Adj.
Definition 2024
Lawn
Lawn
See also: lawn
English
Proper noun
Lawn
- A town in Newfoundland and Labrador
- An unincorporated community in Pennsylvania
- A town in Texas
- An unincorporated community in West Virginia
lawn
lawn
See also: Lawn
English
Noun
lawn (countable and uncountable, plural lawns)
- An open space between woods.
- Ground (generally in front of or around a house) covered with grass kept closely mown.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned, […] and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
-
- (biology) An overgrown agar culture, such that no separation between single colonies exists.
Derived terms
Translations
open space between woods
ground covered with grass
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Etymology 2
Apparently from Laon, a town in France known for its linen manufacturing.
Noun
lawn (countable and uncountable, plural lawns)
- (uncountable) A type of thin linen or cotton.
- 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula:
- The stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death robe.
- 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, p. 144:
- He looked through the glass at the fire, set it down on the end of the desk and wiped his lips with a sheer lawn handkerchief.
- 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula:
- (in the plural) Pieces of this fabric, especially as used for the sleeves of a bishop.
- (countable, obsolete) A piece of clothing made from lawn.
- 1910, Margaret Hill McCarter, The Price of the Prairie:
- […] she was as the wild yoncopin to the calla lily. Marjie knew how to dress. To-day, shaded by the buggy-top, in her dainty light blue lawn, with the soft pink of her cheeks and her clear white brow and throat, she was a most delicious thing […]
- 1910, Margaret Hill McCarter, The Price of the Prairie:
Translations
a type of linen or cotton fabric
an item of clothing made from the fabric
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References
- lawn in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911