Lake
Lake (lāk) , noun
[French laque, from Per. See Lac.]
A pigment formed by combining some coloring matter, usually by precipitation, with a metallic oxide or earth, esp. with aluminium hydrate; as, madder lake; Florentine lake; yellow lake, etc.
Lake , noun
[Compare German laken.]
A kind of fine white linen, formerly in use. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
Lake (lāk) , intransitive verb
[Anglo-Saxon lācan, lacan, to spring, jump, lāc play, sport, or from Icelandic leika to play, sport; both akin to Gothic laikan to dance. r120. Compare Knowledge.]
To play; to sport. [Provincial English]
Lake , noun
[Anglo-Saxon lac, Latin lacus; akin to Anglo-Saxon lagu lake, sea, Icelandic logr; OIr. loch; compare Greek la`kkos pond, tank. Compare Loch, Lough.]
A large body of water contained in a depression of the earth's surface, and supplied from the drainage of a more or less extended area.
Lakes are for the most part of fresh water; the salt lakes, like the Great Salt Lake of Utah, have usually no outlet to the ocean.
Collocations (9)
Lake dwellers (Ethnology) , people of a prehistoric race, or races, which inhabited different parts of Europe. Their dwellings were built on piles in lakes, a short distance from the shore. Their relics are common in the lakes of Switzerland.
Lake dwellings (Archaeol.) , dwellings built over a lake, sometimes on piles, and sometimes on rude foundations kept in place by piles; specifically, such dwellings of prehistoric times. Lake dwellings are still used by many savage tribes. Called also lacustrine dwellings. See Crannog.
Lake fly (Zoology) , any one of numerous species of dipterous flies of the genus Chironomus. In form they resemble mosquitoes, but they do not bite. The larvae live in lakes.
Lake herring (Zoology) , the cisco (Coregonus Artedii).
Lake poets or Lake school , a collective name originally applied in contempt, but now in honor, to Southey, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, who lived in the lake country of Cumberland, England, Lamb and a few others were classed with these by hostile critics. Called also lakers and lakists.
Lake sturgeon (Zoology) , a sturgeon (Acipenser rubicundus), of moderate size, found in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. It is used as food.
Lake trout (Zoology) , any one of several species of trout and salmon; in Europe, esp. Salmo fario; in the United States, esp. Salvelinus namaycush of the Great Lakes, and of various lakes in New York, Eastern Maine, and Canada. A large variety of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), inhabiting many lakes in New England, is also called lake trout. See Namaycush.
Lake whiting (Zoology) , an American whitefish (Coregonus Labradoricus), found in many lakes in the Northern United States and Canada. It is more slender than the common whitefish.