lave
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to wash; bathe.
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(of a river, sea, etc.) to flow along, against, or past; wash.
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Obsolete. to ladle; pour or dip with a ladle.
verb (used without object)
noun
adjective
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lave1
First recorded before 900; Middle English laven “to wash, bathe, moisten,” partly from Old French laver, from Latin lavāre “to wash, bathe”; partly from Old English lafian “to pour water on, wash,” gelafian “to wash, lave, refresh,” itself perhaps from Latin lavāre
Origin of lave2
First recorded before 1000; Middle English love, lave, loave, Old English lāf “remnant, remains”; cognate with Old High German leiba, Old Norse leif, Gothic laiba; akin to leave 1
Origin of lave3
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; special use of lave 1
Vocabulary lists containing lave
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In 2023 it brokered a deal between bitter rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, which lave long stood on opposing sides in proxy wars in the Middle East.
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
The eruption eased pressure that had been building under a lave dome perched on the crater.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 5, 2021
Khalid Thomas, Elias Valtonen and walk-on Kyle Feit all played sporadically, but their transfers lave Hurley with a thin roster, particularly if White and Martin don’t return.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 1, 2020
When Boris was questioned by police about the large cache of diamonds discovered in his possession, :the name of a close friend is said to lave come up: Brezhnev's daughter Galina.
From Time Magazine Archive
Despite the fact that I hated hem, Denna’s men taught me a lesson that I might never lave learned otherwise.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Back at the Aiden house, the Shabbat dinner guests have all laved their hands with a glass of water and returned to the sun deck for matzo-ball soup.
From Nature ● Jun. 22, 2011
But the freshmen have always laved the temples afterward until they shone pristine and classic as before.
From Time Magazine Archive
Pyro glosses over its terror with a sort of Hitchcock-and-bull story photographed in Spain in flamenco hues and laved in bucketfuls of blue butane gas.
From Time Magazine Archive
Catherine the Great, Jonathan Swift, John Wesley and a score of other 18th century movers and shapers are laved more in the warm glow of idiosyncrasy than in the cold light of 100% accuracy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Once more Aragorn bruised two leaves of athelas and cast them into steaming water; and he laved her brow with it, and her right arm lying cold and nerveless on the coverlet.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
"Sit down, Denis, sit down—don't be laving your company such a night as this."
From The Macdermots of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope
A palm-leaf sail that stretches wide, A sea that's running strong, A boat that dips its laving side, The forefoot's rippling song.
From In Court and Kampong Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford
The willow branches appear to have taken on a deeper yellow in spring; perhaps it is the effect of the stronger sunshine, perhaps it is the effect of the swift, vital water laving their roots.
From A Year in the Fields by John Burroughs
When I came to, Mrs. Garner, greatly frightened, was kneeling beside me and laving my face with eau-de-Cologne.
From Pretty Madcap Dorothy Or, How She Won a Lover by Laura Jean Libbey
"Sure they are just after laving this place, becase they are gone away these three big days."
From Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp Late a Lieut. in His Majesty's 87th Regiment by John Shipp
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