lye

• IPA^(key): /laɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophones: lie, lai, Leigh (some placenames)

From Middle English leye, lye, from Old English lēah, lēag (“lye”), from Proto-West Germanic *laugu, from Proto-Germanic *laugō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Loge, Looie (“lye”), Dutch loog (“lye”), German Low German Loge, Loje, Loog (“lye”), German Lauge (“lye”).

lye (countable and uncountable, plural lyes)

1. An alkaline liquid made by leaching ashes (usually wood ashes).
2. Potassium or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).
   • 2019, Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift, Hogarth, page 372:

     She had not left the lye in too long so that the hair would fall out in clumps later.

lye (third-person singular simple present lyes, present participle lyeing or lying, simple past and past participle lyed)

1. To treat with lye.

• lye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Variant of lie (“to rest horizontally”) now used in a specialised sense; compare sett.

lye (third-person singular simple present lyes, present participle lying, simple past lay, past participle lain or layn)

1. Obsolete spelling of lie.
   • 1654, John Donne, Loves Diet:

     Now negligent of sports I lye,
     And now as other Fawkners use,
     I spring a mistresse, sweare, write, sigh and weepe:
     And the game kill'd, or lost, goe talk, and sleepe.

   • 1687, [John Dryden], “The Third Part”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson , →OCLC, page 88:

     But when his foe lyes proſtrate on the plain,
     He ſheaths his paws, uncurls his angry mane;
     And, pleas'd with bloudleſs honours of the day,
     Walks over, and diſdains th' inglorious Prey, […]

lye (plural lyes)

1. Obsolete spelling of lie.
2. (UK, rail transport) A short side line, connected with the main line; a turn-out; a siding.
   • 1962 October, G. Freeman Allen, “The New Look in Scotland's Northern Division—II: The new Perth marshalling yard”, in Modern Railways, page 273, photo caption with indicating arrow:

     Brakevan lye. [same page in the main text] There is also an inclined lye for brakevans at each end of the yard.

“lye”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Ely, Ley, ley, yel, -ley

From Old Norse hlýja, from the adjective hlýr.

• lya (a infinitive)

lye (present tense lyer, past tense lydde, past participle lytt/lydd, passive infinitive lyast, present participle lyande, imperative ly)

1. to warm up, give off warmth

lye (present tense lyar or lyer, past tense lya or lydde, past participle lya or lydd, present participle lyande)

1. Eye dialect spelling of lyde.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lye

1. inflection of ly:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

• “lye” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Lye, yle