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plural liens
(obsolete) A tendon.
(law) A right to take possession of a debtor’s property as security until a debt or duty is discharged. quotations examples
[…] every youth movement presents itself as loan to the future, and tries to call in its lien in advance, but when there is no future all loans are canceled.
1989, Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009
Bodin deemed the king of France's power as absolute in the sense that the ruler was ‘absolved’ by divine sanction from legally binding liens and restrictions.
2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 7
(biblical, archaic) Alternative form of lain quotations
And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done vnto vs? one of the people might lightly haue lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest haue brought guiltinesse vpon vs.”
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Genesis 26:10
And the Priest shall charge her by an othe, and say vnto the woman, If no man haue lyen with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to vncleannesse with another in stead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Numbers 5:19
plural lienes
(uncommon, possibly obsolete) The spleen. quotations
Li'enal. Pertaining to the lien or spleen; splenic.
1892, John Marie Keating, Henry Hamilton, John Chalmers Da Costa, A New Pronouncing Dictionary of Medicine
The lien or spleen (figs. 282 to 285) is a soft, highly vascular contractile and very elastic organ of a dark purplish colour. It is placed obliquely behind the stomach, [...]
1914, Quain's Elements of Anatomy, volume 1, page 312