▪ I. lewis, n.1
(ˈluːɪs)
Also lewiss, louis, luis.
[Of obscure origin; possibly f. Lewis or Louis as a surname or Christian name. A dial. form levis (Whitby Gloss. 1876) suggests connexion with F. lever to raise; but the formation and the phonology are not easily explained on this hypothesis.]
An iron contrivance for raising heavy blocks of stone. Also called lewisson.
It consists of three pieces arranged so as to form a dovetail, the outside pieces being fixed in a dovetail mortise by the insertion of the middle piece. The three pieces are then connected together by the pin of the clevis passing through them.
| 1743 W. Stukeley in Bibl. Topogr. Brit. (1790) III. 387 At each extremity a stone of Arthur's Oon to be suspended by the lewis in the hole of them. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §39 The instrument we now call the Lewis, is of an old date. 1816 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 93/2 [They] succeeded in boring the stone securing a lewiss and making fast a purchase for heaving it up. 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 317 Speedy louis, invented to expedite the hoisting of light stones in the erection of buildings. 1883 Stonemason Jan., A chain attached to a pair of lewises fixed in the face of the rock, and worked by a crane. |
b. attrib.: lewis-bolt, ‘a wedge-shaped bolt secured in its socket by lead, and used as a lewis in lifting’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); lewis-hole, the hole into which a lewis is fitted.
| 1740 Pineda Sp. Dict., Impleóla..by us call'd a Luis hole. 1742 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3) II. 254 The Lewis-holes are still left in many of the Stones. 1893 Reliquary Jan. 13 The..walls are almost, if not entirely, of Roman worked stone. Cramp holes and grooves, lewis holes, and broached tooling are everywhere visible. |
▪ II. lewis, n.2
(ˈluːɪs)
[f. the name of the inventor.]
‘The name of one kind of shears used in cropping woollen cloth’ (Ure Dict. Arts 1839).
| In mod. Dicts. |
▪ III. lewis, v.
(ˈluːɪs)
[f. lewis n.1]
trans. To fasten by means of, or after the manner of, a lewis.
| 1837 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 72/1 When the stone is broken..it is separated on the bed by a very large iron crowbar or gavelock, and this is either lewised or chained, and raised by the large crane or ‘gin’. 1883 Proc. Assoc. Municipal Engin. IX. 88 The only ties are wrought-iron ‘lewis’ bolts, ‘lewised’ into the old arch stones and turned down and cemented into the new ones. |
▪ IV. lewis
obs. pl. of leaf; obs. f. louis.