lave
Plural: laves
Verb
Verb Forms: laved, laving, laves
- To wash or bathe, gently or ceremonially.
- wash or flow against
- "the waves laved the shore"
- cleanse (one's body) with soap and water
- wash one's face and hands
- To bathe or wash (someone or something).
- Of a river or other water body: to flow along or past (a place or thing); to wash.
- Followed by into, on, or upon: to pour (water or some other liquid) with or as if with a ladle into or on someone or something; to lade, to ladle.
- To remove (something), as if by washing away with water.
- To surround or gently touch (someone or something), as if with water.
- Chiefly in sexual contexts: to lick (someone or something).
- Followed by out or up: to draw or scoop (water) out of something with a bucket, scoop, etc.; specifically, to bail (water) out of a boat.
- To bathe or wash.
- To surround as if with water.
- Chiefly in sexual contexts; followed by at: to lick.
- Of ears: to droop, to hang down.
Noun
- An act of bathing or washing; a bath or bathe, a wash.
- The sea.
- That which is left over; a remainder, a remnant, the rest.
- A relict, a widow.
Adj
- Chiefly in lave ears: of ears: drooping, hanging down.
Examples
- She would LAVE her hands before each Scrabble game, a personal superstition.
Origin / Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English laven (“to bathe, wash; to bail or draw water, drain, exhaust; to dampen, wet; to pour; of water, etc.: to flow, stream”), and then partly:
* from Old French laver (“to be washed; to wash”) (modern French laver (“to wash (oneself)”)), from Latin lavāre, the present active infinitive of lavō (“to bathe, wash; to dampen, wet”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”); and
* from Old English lafian (“to bathe; to make wet; to ladle out; to pour”), from Proto-West Germanic *labōn (“to refresh, revitalize; to strengthen”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Latin lavō (see above) but this does not explain the change in meaning from “to wash; to wet” to “to refresh; to strengthen”. Perhaps Old English lafian is derived directly from the Latin word, and Proto-West Germanic *labōn and words in languages derived from it such as Dutch and German are coincidentally similar to the Old English word.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Synonyms
lap, wash, wash up, lave, leavings, leftover, ort, relic, remainder, remains, remanent, remnant, residue, residuum, rest, rump
Scrabble Score: 7
lave: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordlave: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
lave: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary