Definition of "lither"

(archaic or British, dialectal)

1. Lazy, slothful; listless.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1653, François Rabelais, Thomas Urquhart and Peter Anthony Motteux, transl., “Why Monks are the Out-casts of the World; and wherefore Some Have Bigger Noses than Others?”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […]; republished in volume I, London: […] Navarre Society […], book the first, page 120

   • "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."

     1820, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], page 85

   • 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.A litherback is a lazy or slothful person.]

     , “Of the Fourth Precept of the Second Table, which is in Order the Eighth of the Ten Commandments, Thou Shalt Not Steal. Of the Owning and Possessing of Proper Goods, and of the Right and Lawful Getting of the Same; against Sundry Kinds of Theft. The First Sermon.”, in H. I., transl., edited by Thomas Harding, The Decades of Henry Bullinger, Minister of the Church of Zurich, volume II (The Third Decade), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University Press [for the Parker Society], page 32

   • 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.

     1900, Charles Whibley, “Introduction”, in [François] Rabelais, translated by Thomas Urquhart and Peter Le Motteux [i.e., Peter Anthony Motteux], edited by W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, Gargantua and Pantagruel […] (Tudor Translations; XXIV), volume I, London: David Nutt […], page lxiv

2. Flexible, supple; also, agile, lithe.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.Used here to mean “easily passed through; flexible”.

     1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene vii], page 113, column 2

(obsolete)

1. Bad, evil; false.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, […]

     a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Poems against Garnesche. Skelton Laureate Defendar ageinst Lusty Garnyshe Well Beseen Crystofer Chalangar, et cetera.”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, page 130, lines 145–147

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

     c. 1515–1516 (date written; published 1568), John Skelton, “Against Venemous Tongues Enpoysoned with Sclaunder and False Detractions, &c.”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, page 133

2. In poor physical condition.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [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.

     1567, Ovid, “The Twelfth Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], folio 152, verso

comparative form of lithe: more lithe  examples