lath
/lɑːθ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.15 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A thin, narrow strip, fastened to the rafters, studs, or floor beams of a building, for the purpose of supporting a covering of tiles, plastering, etc.
noun
Microscopic, needle-like crystals, usually of plagioclase feldspar, in a glassy groundmass
noun
One of the sharp-edged, thick planks driven forward to hold back loose earth or mud when digging the way through for tunnelling or spiling. Also called a spill.
noun
Alternative form of lat (“staff; monumental pillar”).
Example Sentences
- "It is a piece of wood furnished with two parallel rows of plates, folding over each other, so as to resemble, in some degree, the laths of a blind."
- ""You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.""
- "The rubble waits him, sloping up to broken rear walls in a clogging, an openwork of laths pointlessly chevroning-flooring, furniture, glass, chunks of plaster, long tatters of wallpaper, split and shattered joists […]."
- "Lanna says about wishing she was bigger in the chest and I goes that I had nothing to beat there and I was thin as a lat."
Etymology
From Middle English laththe, laþþe, earlier lathe, laþe, altered from Old English lætt (“lath”), from Proto-West Germanic *lattu, from Proto-Germanic *laþô (compare Dutch lat, German Latte) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lat- (compare Welsh llath (“rod, wand, yard”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
laths (plural)
lat (alternative, Scotland)
latt (alternative, Scotland)
laths (present, singular)
lathing (participle, present)
lathed (participle, past)
lathed (past)
Derived Forms
Phrases
dagger of lath
lath and plaster
plaster and lath
lath board
lath brick
lath nail
lath plaster
lath strapping