£62 L AT 
which feems to be barbaroufly conflru&ed of the french 
word late , a lath, tills palm being called in that language 
latanier. It is a genus of the clafs dioecia, order niona- 
delphia, natural order of palmae.— EJfential Charadler. 
Male. Spathe of numerous imbricated leaves; fpadix 
branched, its branches fingered at the top, catkin-like, 
fomewhat cylindrical, of many imbricated fingle-flowered 
fcales. Corolla in fix deep fegments j the three outer 
ones fmallett. Stamens fifteen or fixteen ; antherse ob¬ 
long, two-celled. Female unknown. 
Latania Borbonica, a fingle fpecies. Trunk llraight, 
Ample, cylindrical, leafy at the top ; leaves (talked, fan- 
fliaped, glaucous 5 their ribs cottony at the back} flowers 
yellow. 
LATAT'SI, a mountain of Thibet. Lat. 31.35. N. 
Ion. 77. 14. E. 
LATCII, f. \_letfe, Dut. laccio, Italian.] A catch of a 
door moved by a firing, or a handle.—The latch mov’d up. 
Gay's Pajlorals. 
Then comes rofy health from her cottage of thatch. 
Where never phyfician had lifted the latch. Smart. 
To LATCH, v. a. To faften with a latch. —He had 
ftrength to reach his father’s houfe: the door was only 
latched ; and, when he had the latch in his hand, he turn¬ 
ed about his head to fee his purfuer. Locke. — Spenfer ufes 
it for to faften, generally.—He popt him in, and his baf- 
ket did latch. Shepherd's Kalendar. —[From keccan, Sax.] 
To catch : 
Pumy (tones I haftily bent. 
And threw ; but nought availed: 
He was fo wimble and fo wight, 
From bough to bough he leaped light. 
And oft the pumies latched. Spen/er's March . 
LAT'CHA, a lake of Ruflia, in the government of 
Olonetz, about thirty-two miles in length, and eight in 
breadth. Lat. 61. to 61. ao.N. Ion. 38. 30. E. 
LATCHE, Lat'chet, or Las'ket, f. A fea term; a 
loop made of a fmall rope.'— Latches or lafkets, in a (hip, 
are fmall lines like loops, faftened by fewing into the bon¬ 
nets and drablers of a (hip, in order to lace the bonnets 
to the courfes, or the drablers to the bonnets. Harris. 
LAT'CHET, f. placet, Fr.] The firing that fallens the 
Ihoe.—There cometh one mightier than I, the latchet of 
whofe (hoes I am not worthy to unloofe. Mark , i. 7. 
LAT'CHING,/! The aft of faftening with a latch. 
LATCHOU', a river of Thibet, which runs into the 
Ganges in lat. 30. 50. N. Ion. 77. 49. E. 
LA'TE, a town of Peru, in the jurifdiftion of Lima. 
LATE, adj. [laet, Sax. lact, Dut. in the comparative 
latter or later, in the fuperlative latejl or lajl. Lajl is ab- 
folute and definite, more than latejl .2 Contrary to early; 
flow ; tardy; long delayed : 
My hading days fly on with full career, 
But my late fpring no bud nor bloflom (hewetli. Milton. 
Juft was the vengeance, and to latejl days 
Shall long pofterity refound thy praife. Pope's Odyjfey. 
Laft in any place, office, or cliarafter.—All the difference 
between the late fervants, and thofe who (laid in the fa¬ 
mily, was, that thofe latter were finer gentlemen. Addi- 
fon's SpeElator. —The deceafed within a few years: as, The 
works of the late Dr. Gmelin.—Far in the day or night. 
LA'TE, adv. After long delays; after a long time. It 
is ufed often with too, when the proper time is pad; 
A fecond Silvius after thefe appears, 
Silvius A£neas, for thy name he bears •. 
For arms and juftice equally renown’d. 
Who, late reftor’d, in Alba (hall be crown’d. Dryden. 
He laughs at all the giddy turns of date, 
When mortals fearch too foon, and fear too late. Dryden . 
In a later feafon.—To make rofes, or other flowers, come 
late, is an experiment of plealure j for the ancients efteem- 
L A T 
ed much of the rofa fera. Bacon's Natural RiJlorj.~. Lately b 
not long ago : 1 9 
In reafon’s abfence fancy wakes. 
Ill-matching words and deeds long pad or late. MiltoiH 
Far in the day or night: 
Was it fo late, friend, ere you went to bed, 
That you do lie fo late ? Shakefpeare. 
Of Late ; lately ; in times pad ; near the prefent. Late 
in this phrafe feems to be an adjedlive.—Who but felt of 
late? Milton. —Men have of late made ufe of a pendulum., 
as a more fteady regulator. Locke. 
LA'TE-WAKE,yi A ceremony ufed at funerals in 
the Highlands of Scotland, The evening after the death 
of any perfon, the relations and friends of the deceafed 
meet at the houfe, attended by bagpipe or fiddle ; the 
neared of kin, be it wife, fon, or daughter, opens a me¬ 
lancholy ball, dancing and greeting (i. e. crying violently) 
at the fame time, and this continues till day-light; but 
with fuch gambols and frolics among the younger part of 
the company, that the lofs which occafioned them is often 
more than fupplied by the confequences of that night. If 
the corpfe remains unburied for two nights, the fame ritea 
are renewed. 
LAT'EBRa®, f. plu. [Latin.] Dens, hiding-places. 
LAT'EBROUS, adj. Full of dens, full of hiding- 
places. Cole. 
LA'TED, adj. Belated; furprifed by the night: 
The weft glimmers with fome ftreaks of day : 
Now fpurs the lated traveller apace 
To gain the timely inn. Shakefpeare's Macbeth. 
LAT'EEN, f. A long triangular fail extended by a 
lateen-yard, and frequently ufed by xebecs, polacres, (et- 
tees, and other vell’els navigated in the Mediterranean fea, 
LA'TELY, adv. Not long ago.—A certain Jew named 
Aquila, lately come from Italy. APIs xviii. 2. 
LA'TENESSjy. Time far advanced.— Latenejs in life 
might be improper to begin the world with. Swift to Gay. 
LA'TENT, adj. [latens, Lat.] Hidden ; concealed ; fe- 
cret.—If we look into its retired movements, and more 
fecret latent fprings, we may there trace out a Heady hand 
producing good out of evil. Woodward. 
Who drinks, alas ! but to forget; nor fees, 
That melancholy (loth, fevere difeafe, 
Mem’ry confus’d, and interrupted thought. 
Death’s harbingers, lie latent in the draught. Prior. 
LAT'ERAL, adj. [ lateral , Fr. lateralis, Lat.] Growing 
out on the fide ; belonging to the fide.—The (mailed vef- 
fels, which carry the blood by lateral branches, feparate 
the next thinner fluid or ferum, the diameters of which 
lateral branches are lefs than the diameters of the blood- 
veflels. Arbutlinot on Aliments. —Placed, or acting on the 
fide : 
Forth ru(h the Levant, and the ponent winds 
Eurus and Zephyr, with their lateral noife. 
Sirocco and Libecchio. Milton. 
Lateral Equation, in algebra, denotes a fimplt 
equation; an equation whofe root is of one dimenfion. 
Lateral Ligaments, in anatomy, are thofe placed at 
the fides of the joints. 
Lateral Line, the line which runs from the head to 
the tail in the middle of the fides of mod fifties. 
Lateral Sinuses, in anatomy, the two branches into 
which the fuperior longitudinal finus of the dura mater is 
divided at the internal tranlverfe ridge of the occipital 
bone. 
LATERAL'ITY,/. The quality of having diftinft 
fides. — We may reafonably conclude a right and left late¬ 
rality in the ark, or naval edifice of Noah. Brown. 
LATERALLY, adv. By the fide; fidewife.—The days 
are fet laterally againft the columns ot the golden number. 
Holder on Time. 
LATERAN', 
