Lath Meaning
/lɑːθ/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA thin, narrow strip, fastened to the rafters, studs, or floor beams of a building, for the purpose of supporting a covering of tiles, plastering, etc.
nounMicroscopic, needle-like crystals, usually of plagioclase feldspar, in a glassy groundmass
Sentence Examples
You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The carpenter nailed a wooden ____ to the wall before applying plaster.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old walls were constructed using wood ____ and plaster, which was a very common method in the past.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English laththe, laþþe, earlier lathe, laþe, altered from Old English lætt (“lath”), from Proto-West Germanic *lattu, from Proto-Germanic *laþô (compare Dutch lat, German Latte) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lat- (compare Welsh llath (“rod, wand, yard”)).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.""
— 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet:
"The rubble waits him, sloping up to broken rear walls in a clogging, an openwork of laths pointlessly chevroning-flooring, furniture, glass, chunks of plaster, long tatters of wallpaper, split and shattered joists […]."
— 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:
"Lanna says about wishing she was bigger in the chest and I goes that I had nothing to beat there and I was thin as a lat."
— 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 21:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The carpenter nailed a wooden ____ to the wall before applying plaster.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old walls were constructed using wood ____ and plaster, which was a very common method in the past.