Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Lightning; flash.
  • To seek; search for; inquire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Lightning; flash of lightning; a flash.
  • verb transitive, intransitive To seek; search for; inquire.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lait, layt, leit, leyt, from Old English līġet, līġetu, līeġet ("lightning, flash of lightning"), from Proto-Germanic *laugiþō (“lightning”), from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“to shine”). Related to Old English līeġ ("fire, flame, lightning"). Compare also Old High German laugazan, lōhazan ("to be red, shine, sparkle"), Gothic  (lauhatjan, "to lighten"). More at lowe, light.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English laiten, leiten, from Old Norse leita ("to seek, search, inquire"), from Proto-Germanic *wlaitōnan (“to look out, see”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to see”). Cognate with Icelandic leita ("to search"), Swedish leta ("to search, hunt, forage"), Old English wlātian ("to gaze, observe, look upon, behold").

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Examples

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    mother-in-law 2010

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    sabot - French Word-A-Day 2005

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • I put water on to boil and go searching for a coffee cup; instead I find a stack of porcelain bowls and am reminded that the French still drink their café-au-lait from a bol* just as they still eat their cake with a spoon and not a fork.

    French Word-A-Day: 2005

  • S. France, where we were unexpectedly given a beautiful rose with our cafe au lait.

    acrostiche - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Pour cacher mon fou-rire, je pars faire chauffer du lait; j'apporte le beurre et des tartines de pain tout juste grillé.

    Lettres de ma Terrasse 2009

  • TAKING A SIP OF his café au lait, Field Agent Richard Purcell folded back the front page of the Times-Picayune and scanned the headlines.

    Etched in Bone Adrian Phoenix 2011

  • But as my niece is getting married in August, possibly on a family cruise to the Bahamas, I must refrain from les patates et oeufs regularly and be true to my cornflakes au lait 2%.

    et patati et patata - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • TAKING A SIP OF his café au lait, Field Agent Richard Purcell folded back the front page of the Times-Picayune and scanned the headlines.

    Etched in Bone Adrian Phoenix 2011

  • And like that, I sipped my café-au-lait and watched Jean-Claude point out rosy details in the old, dark photos.

    WWII soldiers remembrance 2009

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