lake

Meanings

Plural: lakes

Noun

a body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land
a purplish red pigment prepared from lac or cochineal
any of numerous bright translucent organic pigments
A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid.
A large amount of liquid; as, a wine lake.
A small stream of running water; a channel for water; a drain.
A pit, or ditch.
An offering, sacrifice, gift.
Play; sport; game; fun; glee.
A kind of fine, white linen.
In dyeing and painting, an often fugitive crimson or vermilion pigment derived from an organic colorant (cochineal or madder, for example) and an inorganic, generally metallic mordant.
In the composition of colors for use in products intended for human consumption, made by extending on a substratum of alumina, a salt prepared from one of the certified water-soluble straight colors.

Verb

To present an offering.
To leap, jump, exert oneself, play.
Subject biological cells to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing until lysis.
To make lake-red.

Origin / Etymology

Arose from a conflation of the form of inherited Middle English lake (“small stream of running water, pool, lake”) with Middle English lac (“lake”), from Old French lac (“lake”) or Latin lacus (“lake, basin, tank”), see lac. The former, lake (“stream, pool, lake”), is inherited from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, expanse of water, lake”), from Proto-West Germanic *laku, from Proto-Germanic *lakō (“stream, pool, water aggregation”), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak, drain”). It is related to Dutch laak (“stream, drainage ditch, pond”), German Low German Lake, Laak (“drainage, marshland”), German Lache (“puddle”), Icelandic lækur (“stream”).
Despite their similarity in form and meaning, Old English lacu is not related to English lay (“lake”), Latin lacus (“hollow, lake, pond”), Scottish Gaelic loch (“lake”), Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, “waterhole, tank, pond, pit”), all from Proto-Indo-European *lókus, *l̥kwés (“lake, pool”).

Synonyms

lac, lake, loch

Scrabble Score: 8

lake is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
lake is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
lake is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

lake is a valid Words With Friends word