Meaning of lither | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Lazy, slothful; listless.
   British, archaic, dialectal
2. comparative form of lithe: more lithe
   comparative, form-of
3. Flexible, supple; also, agile, lithe.
   British, archaic, dialectal
4. Bad, evil; false.
   obsolete
5. In poor physical condition.
   obsolete

Examples

“After the same manner a Monk (I mean⟳ those lither, idle, lazie Monks) doth not labour and work⟳, as do the Peasant and Artificer: doth not ward and defend⟳ the countrey, as doth the man of warre: cureth not the sick and diseased, as the Physician doth: doth neither preach nor teach⟳, as do the Evangelical Doctors and Schoolmasters: doth not import commodities and things necessary for the Commonwealth, as the Merchant doth: therefore is it, that by and of all men they are hooted at, hated and abhorred.”

“"It is thine own⟳ laziness, thou false English blood, that doest nothing but drink⟳ and sleep⟳," retorted the page, "and leaves that lither lad to do the work⟳, that he minds as little as thou."”

“Secondarily, let⟳ him which laboureth in his vocation be prompt and active; let⟳ him be watchful and able to abide labour; he must be no lither-back, unapt, or slothful fellow. Whatsoever he doth, that let⟳ him do with faith and diligence.”

“Thus he [Rabelais] sketched an education which might have⟳ befitted a great King, without a word of ribaldry or scorn, and in such a spirit as proves that he gravely condemned the lazy, lither system of the monasteries.”

“Thou antique Death, vvhich laugh'ſt vs here to ſcorn, / Anon from thy inſulting Tyrannie, / Coupled in bonds of perpetuitie, / Tvvo Talbots vvinged through the lither Skie, / In thy deſpight ſhall ſcape Mortalitie.”

“The follest slouen ondyr heuen, / Prowde, peuiche, lyddyr, and lewde, / Malapert, medyllar, nothyng well thewde, […]”

The foullest sloven under heaven, / Proud, peevish, lither, and lewd, / Malapert, meddler, nothing well thewed, […]

“For though some be lidder, and list for to rayle, / Yet to lie⟳ vpon me they can not preuayle: […]”

“[Y]it lyes / Aphipnas ſnorting faſt a ſléepe not mynding for to wake⟳, / Wrapt in a cloke of Bearſkinnes which in Oſſa mount⟳ were take⟳. And in his lither hand he hilld a potte of wyne.”

CEFR level