Lid Meaning
/lɪd/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe top or cover of a container.
nounA cap or hat.
Sentence Examples
I cannot get the lid off.
The instant I open the lid an offensive smell greets my nose.
I lifted the lid of the box and peered in.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She struggled to remove the tight ____ from the pickle jar to get a snack.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please make sure to put the ____ back on the jar tightly so that the contents do not dry out over time.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English lid, lyd, from Old English hlid, from Proto-West Germanic *hlid, from Proto-Germanic *hlidą (compare Dutch lid, German Lid (“eyelid”), Swedish lid (“gate”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlitós (“covered”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to cover”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“Yes, sir, if that was the language of love, I'll eat my hat,” said the blood relation, alluding, I took it, to the beastly straw contraption in which she does her gardening, concerning which I can only say that it is almost as foul as Uncle Tom's Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, which has frightened more crows than any other lid in Worcestershire."
— 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
"Mal rider, shortboard or lid everyone surfs like a kook sometimes."
— 2001, realsurf.com message board:
"the rest of us managed to dodge out of control lid riders"
— 2003 August, Kneelo Knews:
"But he suddenly started up, and, closing his eyes, placed his fingers upon the lids, as though he sought to imprison within his brain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake."
— 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter I, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 2:
"Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth[…]."
— 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She struggled to remove the tight ____ from the pickle jar to get a snack.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please make sure to put the ____ back on the jar tightly so that the contents do not dry out over time.