LEST • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Lest

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/lɛst/ Listen

conjunction

Lest conj.

For fear that; that... not; in order that... not. "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty." "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

That (without the negative particle); after certain expressions denoting fear or apprehension. "I feared Lest I might anger thee."

noun

Lest n. Lust; desire; pleasure. (Obs.)

verb

Lest v. i. To listen. (Obs.)

adjective

Lest adj. Last; least. (Obs.)

See images of 'Lest'

Etymology of 'Lest'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lest" Quotes from Famous Books

... a home when once you get a wife Bear gently with her follies, but guard her with your life; Crowd full her heart with loving, yet hold a guarded rein, Lest ye two now that rate as one, again be counted twain. And if she come from Outside Camp, remember all is new And give her time to find herself, teach her to lean on you. And should homesickness grip her, and you find your wife in tears Forget the jest and love ...

— Rhymes of a Roughneck • Pat O'Cotter

... he began to row, using infinite care lest creaking rowlock or splashing blade betray him. Gradually he drew out of the cove, and there was less need of caution. As he rounded Brimstone Point he cast one last, long look at the cabin, square ...

— Jim Spurling, Fisherman - or Making Good • Albert Walter Tolman

... to their several rooms, but not to sleep. Dandy, as the conductor of the enterprise, was weighed down with the responsibilities of his position. Though he had done every thing he could to insure the success of the venture, he was still burdened with a feverish anxiety lest something had been omitted, and with the dread that something might happen to ...

— Watch and Wait - or The Young Fugitives • Oliver Optic

... Mrs. Henchard's life set in with her entry into her husband's large house and respectable social orbit; and it was as bright as such summers well can be. Lest she should pine for deeper affection than he could give he made a point of showing some semblance of it in external action. Among other things he had the iron railings, that had smiled sadly in dull rust for the last eighty ...

— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy

... District of Columbia, where the national government was supreme?" The Democrats were prompt in their reply: Let the glorified policeman keep the peace and leave private interests, such as slave-holding, alone. The Whigs evaded, tried not to apply their theory of "strong" government; they were fearful lest they offend one part of their membership if they asserted that the nation had no right to abolish slavery in the District, fearful of offending others if they did not. Lincoln's protest asserted that "the ...

— Lincoln • Nathaniel Wright Stephenson

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