Lawn Meaning
/lɔːn/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounGround (generally in front of or around a house) covered with grass kept closely mown.
nounAn open space between woods.
Sentence Examples
Let's take advantage of the vacation to mow the lawn.
It began to rain, so he need not have watered the lawn.
In summer we have to mow the lawn twice a week.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The children played on the green ____ in front of the house.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He spent the entire Saturday morning mowing the ____ in the backyard to make it look neat and tidy today.
Word Origin & History
Early Modern English laune (“turf, grassy area”), alteration of laund (“glade”), from Middle English launde, from Old French lande (“heath, moor”), of Germanic or Gaulish origin, from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”) or Proto-Celtic *landā, both from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“land, heath”). Akin to Breton lann (“heath”), Old Norse & Old English land. Doublet of land and lande.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"By opening all the arches of the several apartments […], by lawning the area within, and by a judicious use of ivy where any blank spaces require to be broken, or any deformities concealed, this might be made a beautiful and singular scene; […]"
— 1827, An Historical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Account of Kirkstall Abbey, page 170:
"Two hundred Sempſtreſſes were employed to make me Shirts, and Linen for Bed and Table, all of the ſtrongeft and coarſeſt kind they could get; which, however, they were forced to quilt together in ſeveral Folds, for the thickeſt was ſome degrees finer than Lawn."
— 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Of the Inhabitants of Lilliput; […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages 107–108:
"The stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death robe."
— 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
"He looked through the glass at the fire, set it down on the end of the desk and wiped his lips with a sheer lawn handkerchief."
— 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 144:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The children played on the green ____ in front of the house.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He spent the entire Saturday morning mowing the ____ in the backyard to make it look neat and tidy today.