▪ I. lid, n.
(lɪd)
Forms: 1 hlid(d, 2 hlyd, 3–4 lid(e, 4–6 lidd(e, lydde, 5 led(e, lyd(e, 3– lid.
[OE. hlid neut. = Du. lid, OHG. hlit (MHG. lit, mod.G. in comb. augenlid eyelid) lid, ON. hliđ gate, gateway, gap:—OTeut. *hliđo{supm} f. wk.-grade of root *hlī̆đ-to cover, in OE. be-hl{iacu}dan, OS. bihlîdan to cover, OE. on-hl{iacu}dan, OS. anhlîdan to open.]
1. a. That which covers the opening at the top of a vessel or closes the mouth of an aperture; the upper part of a receptacle, which may be detached or turned upon a hinge in order to give access to the interior.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 262 Ða ledon ða þeᵹenas ðone Hælend ðæron, and mid hlide belucon ure ealra Alysend. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 53/213 So huy openeden þat lid of is swete toumbe þere. a 1300 Cursor M. 5618 In þis kist þe barn sco did Quen it spird was wit þe lid [Fairf. lidde]. a 1375 Joseph Arim. 41 Make a luytel whucche, Forte do in þat ilke blod..whon þe lust speke with me lift þe lide sone. c 1410 Sir Cleges 272 The porter to the panere went, And the led vppe he hentt. c 1450 Two Cookery-bks. 73 Hele the potte with a close led, and stoppe hit aboutȝte with dogh or bater. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 437/2 The preest taketh the lydde of the chalys on whyche is the hoost. 1535 Coverdale Num. xix. 15 And euery open vessel that hath no lydd nor couerynge, is vncleane. 1611 Bible 2 Kings xii. 9 Iehoiada the priest tooke a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 471 ¶8 Upon his lifting up the Lid of it [Pandora's Box]..there flew out all the Calamities and Distempers incident to Men. 1840 Browning Sordello i. 589 Meantime some pyx to screen The full-grown pest, some lid to shut upon The goblin! 1841–71 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 417 The outer layer of the lid is formed of earth precisely similar to that which surrounds the hole. 1865 Kingsley Herew. x. 159 ‘Lift the lid of this box for me’, she said. |
b. Applied to a door, shutter, board, or the like, closing an aperture. Now
dial. or
slang.
Cf. port-lid
s.v. port n.3 6.
| 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings vi. 4 In y⊇ house he made wyndowes, which might be opened and shut with lyddes. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Supererog. Wks. (Grosart) II. 231 Stop thy oven-mouth with a lidde of butter. 1686–7 Aubrey Rem. Gentilism & Judaism (1881) 48 Whereas his former Physitian shutt up his windowes and kept him in utter darknesse, he did open his windowe-lids and let in the light. 1890 Glouc. Gloss., Lid, a cupboard door. 1942 ‘B. J. Ellan’ Spitfire! p. x, Shut the lid, i.e., close the hood [over the pilot's cockpit]. |
c. The top crust of a pie.
dial.| 1615 Markham Eng. Housewife 68 At a vent in the top of the lid put in the same, and then set it into the Oven again. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 73 A Yorkshire Christmas-Pye. First make a good Standing Crust... Then lay on your Lid, which must be a very thick one. |
† d. lid of the knee: the patella, knee-cap.
Obs.| 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 462 The lids of my knees beeing crushed. |
e. In various slang or
colloq. phrases with
down,
off,
on,
esp. to put the lid on, to bring to a close or climax; to conceal or ‘clamp down on’.
| 1915 Lit. Digest 4 Sept. 467/1 In fact, excepting the ordinary saloons,..the ‘lid’ is down, secure and tight. 1964 J. P. Clark Three Plays 13, I hope he keeps The lid down on his wife for I fear She is fretting already. |
| 1873 M. F. Mahony Chron. Fermors I. xii. 225 What wonder if the lid was constantly getting off her temper. 1904 Public Ledger (Philadelphia) 12 Sept. 16 Commissioner of Police McAdoo..has taken frequent occasions to deny that the ‘lid’ was off, to use the slang definition of a lax police administration. 1910 W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 96 ‘Playing with the lid off back there, ain't they?’ The sheriff's nod indicated the distant faro-table. Ibid. 218 I'll back that opinion with the lid off. 1926 A. Huxley Let. 14 Nov. (1969) 276 Then a vast book by the Italian Sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, very good..he really does take the lid off and show you the works. 1927 R. A. Freeman Certain Dr. Thorndyke ii. xviii. 272 ‘My eye,’ exclaimed Miller... ‘This puts the lid on it—or rather takes the lid off.’ 1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris ii. 17 A few jubilant days when the lid was off following Liberation. 1962 Which? May 160 (heading), 14 cars with the lid off. 1968 Listener 19 Dec. 819/2 Are you the Editor of the Sunday Blast, the paper that ‘rips the lid off’? 1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 4 Sept. 5/3 Inevitably when the lid blows off and riots and bloodshed and vandalism begin, the courts will be called on to do something effective about it. 1974 ‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Other Story ii. 15 What will happen, I ask myself, when the police take the lid off? What..will be the resulting smell? |
| 1909 Punch 30 June 452/2 Your astonishing letter puts the lid on it. 1914 ‘High Jinks, Jr.’ Choice Slang 14 Lid (to put on), to put the lid on a town means to close the saloons, gambling houses and all other resorts except summer resorts. 1914 G. B. Shaw Misalliance 77 Tarleton... Young man: youre a fool; but youve just put the lid on this job in a masterly manner. 1914 H. A. Vachell Quinneys' ii. xx. 288 ‘Blackmail!’ gasped Quinney. ‘I prefer to call it a weapon, sir, which you are forcing me, sorely against my will, to use.’ ‘This puts the lid on.’ 1922 C. Sidgwick Victorian ix. 69 ‘That puts the lid on,’ said Jane... ‘You've done for yourself now.’ 1928 T. Gann Discoveries Cent. Amer. xii. 168 Then came the earthquake, which must fairly have put the lid on, as far as Uk was concerned. a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 236 Inland, in the isolation, the lid is on, and the intense watchful malice of neighbours is infinitely worse than any police system. 1930 J. Buchan Castle Gay xiv. 216 You can see for yourself how that would put the lid on it. 1966 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 6 Aug. (1970) 410 Liz came in with a harried look, wanting to know what she could tell the press. She needed to ‘put the lid on’ if Luci had departed. 1974 Times 6 Feb. 19/4 (heading) Putting the lid on distributors' profits. |
f. A hat, a cap.
slang. (
Cf. flip v. 9.)
| 1896 [see glad a. 4 e]. 1916 Story-Teller Feb. 828/2 ‘Dash my wig—where's my lid...’ He snatched his cap up off the bunk. 1916 C. J. Dennis Songs Sentimental Bloke 21, I dips me lid. Ibid. Gloss. 125 Lid, the hat. To dip the lid, to raise the hat. 1929 Wodehouse Mr. Mulliner Speaking ix. 304 You've no idea what a blister you look in that lid. 1946 B. Marshall George Brown's Schooldays xlvi. 178 Keep that lid of yours off your bloody ears if you don't want to look like a rotten sheeny. 1956 B. Holiday Lady sings Blues (1973) i. 11 All the big-time whores wore big red velvet hats then with bird-of-paradise feathers on them. These lids were the thing. 1960 Wodehouse Jeeves in Offing xii. 132 It is almost as foul as Uncle Tom's Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, which has frightened more crows than any other lid in Worcestershire. |
g. (See
quot. 1971.)
slang.| 1967 Time 8 Sept. 18 The high price of ‘commercial’ marijuana ($10 to $15 for a ‘lid’ from which some 40 cigarettes can be rolled). 1968 J. D. MacDonald Pale Grey for Guilt (1969) xii. 152 We had almost two lids of Acapulco Gold. 1969 Rolling Stone 17 May 6/3 We've got this guy from Sand City we just caught with a lid. 1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly (1971) iv. 43 He would be selling grass, meth, acid, lids, match boxes,..or mescaline. 1971 E. G. Landy Underground Dict. 120 Lid, one ounce of marijuana, a quantity by which it is sold. |
2. lid (of the eye) = eyelid.
| c 1220 Bestiary 26 Ðe leun ðanne he lieð to slepen Sal he neure luken ðe lides of hise eȝen. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. viii. (1495) 114 Euery byrde closyth the eye wyth the nether lydde. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3759 His loke was full louely, when ledys were opyn. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. xxxv, And of her eyen held the ledes downe. 1548–77 Vicary Anat. ii. (1888) 19 It is needeful that some members be holden vp with a grystle, as the liddes of the eyes. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 20 Sleepe shall neyther Night nor Day Hang vpon his Pent-house Lid. 1719 Young Job 378 When his [Leviathan's] burnish'd eyes Lift their broad lids, the morning seems to rise. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iv. vii, I closed my lids, and kept them close, And the balls like pulses beat. 1830 Tennyson Poems 122, I straightly would commend the tears to creep From my charged lids. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ii. 23 The skin of the lids contains no fat. |
| fig. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. v. Wks. 1856 I. 131 Ere night shall close the lids of yon bright stars. 1646 Crashaw Sopetto d'Herode i. xlviii, The fields..saw no more, But shut their flowry lids for ever. |
3. Each of the two sides or covers (of a book). Chiefly
dial. and
U.S.| 1585 Higins Junius' Nomenclator 7/1 Inuolucrum, operculum libri, sittybus,..the couer or lid of a booke. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Lid, the boarded cover of a book. 1864 Grosart Lambs all Safe (1865) 85, I might close the lids of the Bible. 1881 Leicester Gloss. s.v. Hilling, In Leicestershire generally, however, the covers of a book are the ‘lids’. 1896 N.Y. Sun in Catholic News 29 Feb. 2/7, I have never yet found ‘a good Catholic’ who would deny anything in ‘The Word of God’ from lid to lid. |
4. Bot. and
Conch. = operculum.
| 1681 Grew Musæum 130 That little Shell called Blatta Byzantia, is the Operculum or Lid of the Purple. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 34 Many of them [sea snails] are also furnished with a lid, which covers the mouth of the shell, and which opens and shuts at the animal's pleasure. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants 799 Lid, a cover to the tips of several of the Mosses; as in the Bogmoss. 1839 Lindley Introd. Bot. i. ii. (ed. 3) 141 The singular form of leaf..which has been called a pitcher..consists of a fistular green body..closed at its extremity by a lid, termed the operculum. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 9/2 The urn itself [sc. of a moss] is closed by a lid, or operculum, and contains the spores. 1863 Berkeley Brit. Mosses Gloss. 312 Lid, the terminal portion of the sporangium, which usually separates by a circular horizontal fissure. |
5. Mining.
a. The roof or roof-stone covering a ‘pipe’; a
lid-stone (
q.v.).
b. A flat piece of wood placed between the roof and the prop supporting it.
| a. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. L iv b, Pipes never fail of Lids, it is that by which they are distinguished from Flats. |
| b. 1847 in Halliwell. 1860 Mining Gloss. (ed. 2), Derbysh. Terms, Cap or Lid, a flat piece of wood placed between the top of the punch and the roof of the mine. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
lid-elevator,
lid-lash;
lid-cells Bot. (see
quot.);
lid-flower, a tree or shrub of the genus
Calyptranthes (family Myrtaceæ), in which the upper part of the calyx forms a lid;
lid-stone Mining (see
quot. 1858).
| 1887 Garnsey tr. Goebel's Morphol. Plants 482 *Lid-cells of archegonium [of a cryptogam], terminal cells of neck closing for a time canal of neck. Same as stigmatic cells. |
| 1827 Gentl. Mag. XCVII. ii. 490 The knob, or *lid-elevator, is a pine attached to the lid by a brass pin. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot., *Lid-flower, Calyptranthes. |
| 1820 Keats Lamia i. 151 Her eyes..Hot, glazed, and wide, with *lid⁓lashes all sear. |
| 1653 E. Manlove Lead-Mines 265 *Lid-Stones. 1851 Tapping Derbysh. Lead-Mining Terms (E.D.S.), Rake,..that species of metallic vein which..is not covered with a lid-stone. 1858 A. C. Ramsay Catal. Rock Specimens (1862) 63 (E.D.D.), Locally called ‘lid-stone’, from its lying on the top of the iron ore which occurs in the limestone of the Forest of Dean. |
▪ II. lid, v. (
lɪd)
Also 3
lide.
[f. lid n.] trans. To cover with a lid.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 84 And he heleð hit & wrihð [v.rr. lides, liðeð] so þet he hit nout ne istinckeð. 1750 E. Smith Compl. Housew. (ed. 14) 151 Then lid your pye and bake it. 1913 Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 729/2 The cans..then move along to be lidded. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Nov. 429 (caption) A case packed to the correct height is shown in the illustration. Severe damage may occur to fruit on the lidding press unless the pack is crowned correctly. 1959 Listener 22 Jan. 191/2 Lid the flan with pastry. 1960 Encounter Mar. 21/1 They lidded that box again. |