lid
Americannoun
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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:
Markets have adjusted to the conflict by drawing on commercial and strategic reserves, keeping a lid on demand and seeking out other countries for crude and crude products.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
You have to believe in what is under the lid, behind the frost, wrapped in parchment, waiting to become itself again.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
June was particularly brutal for Europe as a "heat dome" -- a high-pressure system acting like a lid on a boiling pot -- led to all-time and monthly temperature records in several countries.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
There are also opposing forces that may keep a lid on things.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
At Cocoa’s, Bat spilled some of his hot chocolate on his shirt when he took off the lid to add cinnamon.
From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold
It had somehow learned to peel off the bottles’ lids and gulp the cream down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Milkmen fought back in various ways, putting stones atop the lids and draping cloths over them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
“There weren’t lids here before and now they are,” they said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2025
He told BBC Newsnight's special programme: "Why has this one got the firmest of lids on it? I think it is because it goes to the heart of the British state."
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2025
Then he went into his trance; his eyes rolled up under the lids as if he were storing a memory there for future use.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
In the kitchen, hand-carved ceramic birds, whales, elephants and owls look out from the counters, surrounded by lidded cache pots and heavy candlestick holders that feel good in your hand.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 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 each species, the researchers chose a particularly irresistible food — carrots, alfalfa or another treat — and put them in lidded cups in their enclosures.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
Then he carried a tray over to our table with three lidded tin tureens on it, and started banging the tureens down.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
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 Hoskins, Gayle Porter
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.
