LEST • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Lest

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lɛst/ Listen

conjunction

Lest conj.

For fear that; that... not; in order that... not. "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty." "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

That (without the negative particle); after certain expressions denoting fear or apprehension. "I feared Lest I might anger thee."

noun

Lest n. Lust; desire; pleasure. (Obs.)

verb

Lest v. i. To listen. (Obs.)

adjective

Lest adj. Last; least. (Obs.)

See images of 'Lest'

Etymology of 'Lest'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Lest" Quotes from Famous Books

... present day, that it is difficult to realise the moral courage and self-denial which the carrying out of such a plan involved, or the difficulties with which the projector had to grapple. Some parents objected to their children attending the schools, lest Miss More should acquire legal control over them and sell them as slaves. Others would not allow the children to go unless they were paid for it. Of course, the cuckoo-cry of Methodism was raised. The ...

— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... where a crowd is to be represented, he edges himself upon the stage. He is very conscious of the ill condition of his attire: the confirmation coat did but just hold together; and he did not dare to hold himself upright lest he should exhibit the more plainly the shortness of the waistcoat which he had outgrown. He had the feeling very plainly that people would be making themselves merry with him; yet at this moment, he says, "he felt nothing but the ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various

... Parliament at Dublin, there may arise one of those terrible periods in which the observation of pledged faith seems inconsistent with the natural dictates of honour and humanity, and weak concession at the present moment will, at such a crisis, be found to have contained among its other perils the danger lest England, when at last she re-asserts her power in Ireland, ...

— A Leap in the Dark - A Criticism of the Principles of Home Rule as Illustrated by the - Bill of 1893 • A.V. Dicey

... to these comments: they were violently distasteful to me. The unforeseen accident and Nancy's sudden departure had thrown my life completely out of gear: I could not attend to business, I dared not go away lest the news from Nancy be delayed. I spent the hours in an exhausting mental state that alternated between hope and fear, a state of unmitigated, intense desire, of balked realization, sometimes heightening into that sheer ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... excuse of a business nature, which involved the signing and sending of a paper by the early post of next day. He was going to his daughter's to tea, and it was quite a long drive to her house, so he had not dared to put off his errand, he explained, lest he should be detained in the evening. But he had been also longing to take a look at Miss Prince's guest. His wife went to another church and he dutifully accompanied her, though he had been brought up with Miss Prince ...

— A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett

More quotes...