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:
War, high gas prices, rising interest rates and AI are keeping a lid on U.S. job creation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Its eggs contain an unusual structural lid that has not previously been documented in any stick insect or its closest relatives.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
Steinem lifted the lid on the underpaid life of a Bunny, and the physical pain of wearing the high-heels and tight corsets for hours.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Businesses have lots of reasons to keep a lid on hiring — first and foremost, to keep costs down.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
The many bolts were worked loose by the pressure of the hydrogen gas building up below the lid.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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
At others, embers from the blazes landed on trash and recycling bins close to the houses, sometimes burning holes through the plastic lids and igniting the material inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
“There weren’t lids here before and now they are,” they said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2025
His warm complexion had blanched to an ashen gray, his thick eyelashes cast over the bruised crescents of his lower lids.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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
Then store in a lidded contain in the fridge.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 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
I parked on Range View under a sky lidded with clouds and chose a coffee and a juice from Starbucks — the sort of small, inexpensive selection that’s typical of the undesired deliveries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2023
She's kind of pretty in the flickering lamplight, with glittering green powder over her smooth- lidded eyes and a short, black, bobbed haircut.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
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.
