lave

Meaning

Verb

1. (transitive) To bathe or wash (someone or something).
2. (transitive) Of a river or other water body: to flow along or past (a place or thing); to wash.
3. (transitive) 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.
4. (figuratively, transitive) To remove (something), as if by washing away with water.
5. (figuratively, transitive) To surround or gently touch (someone or something), as if with water.
6. (figuratively, transitive) Chiefly in sexual contexts: to lick (someone or something).
7. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) 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.
8. (intransitive, reflexive) To bathe or wash.
9. (figuratively, intransitive) To surround as if with water.
10. (figuratively, intransitive) Chiefly in sexual contexts; followed by at: to lick.

Noun

1. An act of bathing or washing; a bath or bathe, a wash.
2. (also, figuratively, rare) The sea.

Noun

1. (uncountable) That which is left over; a remainder, a remnant, the rest.
2. (rare, uncountable) A relict, a widow.

Adj

Chiefly in lave ears: of ears: drooping, hanging down.

Synonyms

wash

🧽

bathe

wash up

lap

clean

flow

gutter

ladle

launder

pour

regurgitate

rinse

run

spill out

suds

surge

wash out

scrub up

cleanse

course

emanate

feed

Translations

lavar

🧽

rentar-se

wassen

🧽

yıkanmak

laver

🧽

نقع

غمر

خضع

لعق

جلا

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دهن بطبقة رقيقة

ترقرق بالماء

إِغْتسل

غسل

Pronounced as (IPA)

/leɪv/

Etymology

Inherited from Old English: lāf

Cognate with Old High German: leiba

Cognate with Old Norse: leif

Cognate with Old English: belīfan

In summary

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.