lye

See also: lyé and -lye

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Homophones: lie, lai

Etymology 1

From Old English lēag, from Proto-Germanic *laugō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”).

Noun

lye (countable and uncountable, plural lyes)

1. An alkaline liquid made by leaching ashes (usually wood ashes).
2. Potassium or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).

Derived terms

• lyed

Translations

caustic alkaline solution

• Albanian: alisivë (sq) f
• Armenian: մոխրաջուր (hy) (moxraǰur)
• Aromanian: alsivã f, alisivã f
• Bulgarian: лу́га f (lúga)
• Catalan: lleixiu (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 灰汁 (zh) (huīzhī), 灰水 (huīshuǐ)

• Czech: louh m
• Danish: lud c
• Dutch: loog (nl) n
• Esperanto: alkala solvaĵo
• Finnish: lipeä (fi)
• French: soude (fr) f, soude caustique (fr) f, lessive de soude (fr) f, potasse caustique (fr) f, potasse (fr) f
• Galician: lixivia f, bogada f, decoada f, cenrada f
• German: Lauge (de) f
• Greek: αλισίβα (el) f (alisíva)

  Ancient: ῥύμμα n (rhúmma)

• Hungarian: lúg (hu)
• Icelandic: lútur
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: buac f
• Italian: liscivia (it) f, cenerata f, ranno (it) m
• Japanese: 灰汁 (ja) (あく, aku), あく (ja) (aku)
• Latin: lix m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lut (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: lut m or f

• Polish: ług (pl)
• Portuguese: lixívia (pt)
• Romanian: leșie (ro)
• Russian: щёлок (ru) m (ščólok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: лу̑г m

  Roman: lȗg (sh) m

• Spanish: lejía (es) f
• Swedish: lut (sv) c
• Tagalog: tilis
• Thai: ด่าง (th) (dàang)
• Welsh: lleisw m

potassium or sodium hydroxide

• Czech: hydroxid draselný m, hydroxid sodný m
• Dutch: natriumhydroxide n, caustic soda m or f, caustische soda m or f, bijtende soda m or f
• French: soude caustique (fr) f, hydroxyde de sodium (fr)
• German: Ätznatron n, kaustisches Soda n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: idrossido di sodio (it) m, soda caustica (it) f
• Russian: ка́устик (ru) m (káustik) (sodium hydroxide), е́дкий натр (ru) m (jédkij natr) (sodium hydroxide), е́дкое ка́ли (ru) n (jédkoje káli) (potassium hydroxide)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Occitan: ^{(please verify)} lessiu
• Persian: ^{(please verify)} آب قلیائی
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Quechua: ^{(please verify)} lliptʼa
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} nước (vi) ^{(please verify)} gio (vi)

Further reading

• lye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

lye (plural lyes)

1. (UK, railways) A short side line, connected with the main line; a turn-out; a siding.

Verb

lye (third-person singular simple present ly, present participle ing, simple past and past participle lyed)

1. Obsolete spelling of lie.
   • John Dryden

     But when his foe lyes prostrate on the plain,
     He sheaths his paws, uncurls his angry mane;
     And, pleas'd with bloudless honours of the day,
     Walks over, and disdains th' inglorious Prey.

   • John Donne, Loves Diet

     Now negligent of sports I lye,
     And now as other Fawkners use,
     I spring a mistresse, sweare, write, sigh and weepe:
     And the game kill'd, or lost, goe talk, and sleepe.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “lye”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Ely, ley, yel