▪ I. languet, n.
(ˈlæŋgwɪt)
Also 5–7 langett(e, 5–8 langet, 6, 9 languette, 7 langate, langot.
[a. F. languette, dim. of langue tongue.]
Anything shaped like a little tongue.
† 1. The tongue of a balance. Obs.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. xiv. (1859) 11 Pledours in worldly courtes hauen tonges lyke to the languet of the balaunce that draweth hym..to the more peysaunt party. |
† 2. A tongue-shaped ornament; esp. a ‘drop’ of amber, jet, etc. Obs.
| 1430 Will of Grymston (Somerset Ho.), J par precum de jete langettes. 1451 Will of Halle (ibid.), Par precum de Aumbre voc. langetes. 1538 Elyot Dict., Langurium, langettes of aumbre, lyke to longe beadestones. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII (1809) 791 A clothe of estate of the same worke, valanced with frettes knotted and langettes tassaled with Venice golde and siluer. |
† 3. The thong used for tying a shoe, a latchet.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. iii. 224 Take the ther a langett To tye vp thi hose. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 28 The Langot of the Shooe; The latchet of the shooe. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 291/2 The Punching Lead is for the Punching of Holes in the instep and Langetts of a Shooe for the ties to go through. 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss., Langot. |
4. Applied to tongue-shaped parts of various implements; e.g. a narrow blade projecting at the edge of a spade.
| 1611 Florio, Lingula..Also that parte of the barre which is put vnder the weight, and sticketh in the roller, the point, end or languet. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 68 Which Spade shoo must be made with two sides, or Langets, up from the end of the bit, like as if you would plant two broad Knife Blades to look upwards with their points upon a common Spade. 1659 Torriano, Stile, a languet or pin of a pair of writing-tables. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 231 For the cutting Trenches in Watery, Clayie, or Morish Lands, they usually use a Spade, with a Langet or Fin like a knife, turned up by the side of the Spade, and sometimes on both sides. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 238 [A pipe] terminated in a very small Cistern of water behind a stone of the rock, and having a mouth and Languet just above its surface. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Chimney, If the Funnel is loose, you must have Languets or Tenons at the Sides. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Languet, Languette..2. A thin tongue of metal placed between the blades of a comb-cutter's saw, to preserve their distance. 3. A small piece of metal on a sword-hilt which overhangs the scabbard. |
5. Organ-building. In a flue-pipe: A flat plate or tongue fastened by its edge to the top of the foot, and opposite the mouth. Also languid n.
| 1852 Seidel Organ 21 An organ..which contained the following labial or languet registers. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Mouth-pipe, At a point opposite the mouth..a languette, or plate, is placed, nearly closing the interior area of the pipe. |
† 6. a. A spatula. b. (See quot. 1656.) Obs.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Magdaleons, a langate, or roller, little round stones like a roller. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Magdaleon. 1611 Florio, Lingua..Also a little spatle or languet to take salues out of a boxe. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Magdaleon, a Langate or long plaister like a Rowler. Dr. Br[owne]. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Langate, a linen roller for a wound. |
7. A ‘tongue’ or narrow projecting piece of land.
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 606 From the Citie, Northwestward, there Shooteth out a languet of land or promontorie of the maine-land into the Sea. 1652–62 Heylin Cosmogr. iv. (1682) 40 At the point of a long Languet, or tongue of Rock. 1670 Blount Glossogr., Langate or Languet, a long and narrow peece of land or other thing. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. (1738) I. 239 The haven of Messina is..compassed almost round with the city on one side, and a narrow languet or neck of land on the other. |
† 8. gen. A tongue-shaped piece of anything. Obs.
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 266 A true Hippomanes, or Languet of flesh of a dark purple colour near four inches long, that dropt from the forehead of a Colt newly foled. |
9. Zool. One of the row of little tongue-like or tentacular processes along the dorsal edge of the branchial sac of an ascidian.
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 1219/2 The branchial sac of the Botryllidæ is very similar to that of the Clavellinidæ... The crest or fold corresponding to the anterior border of the branchial sinus has no membraneous languet. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 67 Along the opposite side of the branchial sac there runs the ‘oral lamina’ which in other species, such as Ascidia Intestinalis, may be represented by a row of ‘languettes’. 1878 Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 401 The tongue-like appendages (‘languets’) found in Ascidians..form a long row along the dorsal surface. |
▪ II. † languet, v. Obs. rare—1.
[a. OF. languet-er to wag the tongue, chatter.]
intr. To chatter, talk idly. Hence † langueting vbl. n.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iii. xxxii. (1869) 153 So michel haue j gabbed and forsworn, and so falsliche languetted, that j shal neuere be bileeued. Ibid., And for the brennynge that she hath, to assemble ootheres goodes bi false languetinges and vntrewe sweringes. |