lawn

[lawn]

noun

a stretch of open, grass-covered land, especially one closely mowed, as near a house, on an estate, or in a park.

Archaic. a glade.

Origin of lawn

1250–1300; Middle English launde < Middle French lande glade < Celtic; compare Breton lann heath. See land

Related formslawn·y, adjective

lawn

[lawn]

noun

a thin or sheer linen or cotton fabric, either plain or printed.

Origin of lawn

1375–1425; late Middle English lawnd, laun, perhaps named after Laon, where linen-making once flourished

Related formslawn·y, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for lawny

Historical Examples of lawny

Just below, at Eagle Falls, it drops over its precipice in a lawny cascade.
The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky
James Lane Allen
So, upon a magnificent tableau, slowly falls the lawny curtain.
The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper
Martin Farquhar Tupper
The passage was very narrow, but 39 lightsome, for a door was open at the end, peeping into a lawny kind of yard.
Charles Auchester, Volume 1 of 2
Elizabeth Sheppard

British Dictionary definitions for lawny

lawn

noun

a flat and usually level area of mown and cultivated grass

an archaic or dialect word for glade

Derived Formslawny, adjective

Word Origin for lawn

C16: changed form of C14 launde, from Old French lande, of Celtic origin; compare Breton lann heath; related to land

lawn

noun

a fine linen or cotton fabric, used for clothing

Derived Formslawny, adjective

Word Origin for lawn

C15: probably from Laon, a town in France where linen was made

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lawny

lawn

n.1

"turf, stretch of grass," 1540s, laune "glade, open space between woods," from Middle English launde (c.1300), from Old French lande "heath, moor, barren land; clearing" (12c.), from Gaulish (cf. Breton lann "heath"), or from its Germanic cognate, source of English land (n.). The -d perhaps mistaken for an affix and dropped. Sense of "grassy ground kept mowed" first recorded 1733.

lawn

n.2

"thin linen or cotton cloth," early 15c., probably from Laon, city in northern France, a center of linen manufacture. The town name is Old French Lan, from Latin Laudunum, of Celtic origin.