lid
Americannoun
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lids
plural
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a removable or hinged cover for closing the opening, usually at the top, of a pot, jar, trunk, etc.; a movable cover.
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an eyelid.
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a restraint, ceiling, or curb, as on prices or news.
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Slang. a hat, cap, or other head covering.
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(in mosses)
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the cover of the capsule; operculum.
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the upper section of a pyxidium.
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Slang. one ounce of marijuana.
verb (used with object)
idioms
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blow / flip one's lid, to lose control, especially to rage hysterically: Also flip one's wig.
He nearly flipped his lid over the way they damaged his car.
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blow the lid off, to expose to public view, especially to reveal something scandalous, illegal, etc.
noun
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a cover, usually removable or hinged, for a receptacle
a saucepan lid
a desk lid
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short for eyelid
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botany another name for operculum
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slang short for skidlid
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old-fashioned a quantity of marijuana, usually an ounce
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informal to raise one's hat as a greeting, etc
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slang to become crazy or angry
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informal
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to be the final blow to
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to curb, prevent, or discourage
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informal to make startling or spectacular revelations about
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of lid
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hlid; cognate with Dutch, German lid, Old Norse hlith gate, gateway
Explanation
A lid is a top, or a cap — some kind of removable or hinged cover for a container. If you forget to put the lid on your tin of cat food, you may discover that your cat and dog have eaten it all by the end of the day. The lid on your trash can keeps raccoons out of it, and the lid on your travel mug keeps your tea hot for hours. Another lid is your eyelid, the skin that moves over your eyeball like a lid: "Her heavy lids told me she didn't sleep at all." A lid is also slang for a hat or a helmet, and if someone says, "Put a lid on it," they're telling you (somewhat rudely) to quiet down.
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:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced plans to increase buying of U.S. long bonds starting Sept. 9 to keep a lid on yields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
The Sun follows with more details of Guardiola's reported talk to his team about his marital problems in a new documentary that "lifts lid on his agony".
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Some analysts have ventured to say that diminished demand could keep a lid on oil prices through the rest of the year, even if traffic through the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t fully recover.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
In 2013, the vaccination rate among California kindergartners hit a low of 92.3%, below the 95% threshold doctors say is needed to keep a lid on outbreaks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
He blinked them away and put the lid on top of the jar again.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Behind my thin lids, the rays almost hurt my pupils.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
The pink, mouse-like creatures lived in craters covered by dustbin lids - the lids' noisy "clang" gave the show its name.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
The lids of at least some of those silos had problems, likely forcing the Chinese military to repair them, the Pentagon said in its 2024 report on China’s military power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
A spokesperson for the Mother Lode in West Hollywood said that the only difference in operations was a stack of plastic lids at the end of the bar, which will be provided for free.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2025
Ella waved her hand over the latches and the lids flipped shut.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
Everything Sprouts said Friday that it was recalling 5 oz. lidded plastic containers of alfalfa sprouts that were distributed after May 26.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Smith understood how her features cut into and through a role – wide eyes amply lidded, trenchant cheekbones, features that one might associate with snobbery.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2024
Auctioneers originally thought the lidded vase was from the 20th Century but now believe it to be a "superb quality" 18th Century creation from the Qianlong period.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2023
For bathrooms, interior designer Emily Ruff of Cohesively Curated Interiors uses stoneware or marble canisters to hold toothbrushes and lidded canisters for cotton rounds or Q-tips.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
The big glass windows here were lidded eyes that didn’t care—that barely saw them, barely gave them back reflections.
From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit
Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss and some of his City Council colleagues want to explore lidding Interstate 5.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
The spectrum of highway-skeptical advocacy is broad — on behalf of the wholesale removal of a portion of 99, the redesign of Aurora Avenue, the lidding of I-5 near downtown Seattle, against U.S.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 19, 2022
Kirwan is never loath to combat a political foe by lidding his barrel.
From Time Magazine Archive
The light had retreated at the insistence of the darkness—a scrap of cloud lidding the blank eye of the moon—and Bone Gap was still.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
"I can all but read your thoughts," he went on, lidding his green eyes a number of times.
From Peter the Brazen A Mystery Story of Modern China by Gayle Porter Hoskins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
