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Added 9 October 2026

lathe

/leɪð/ verb

In Latin: tornus Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about lathe at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

To invite; bid; ask.

noun

An administrative division of the county of Kent, in England, from the Anglo-Saxon period until it fell entirely out of use in the early twentieth century.

noun

A machine tool used to shape a piece of material, or workpiece, by rotating the workpiece against a cutting tool.
He shaped the bedpost by turning it on a lathe.
The movable swing frame of a loom, carrying the reed for separating the warp threads and beating up the weft.
A granary; a barn.

verb

To shape with a lathe.
To produce a three-dimensional model by rotating a set of points around a fixed axis.

Origin

From Middle English lathen, from Old English laþian (“to invite, summon, call upon, ask”), from Proto-West Germanic *laþōn, from Proto-Germanic *laþōną (“to invite”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēy- (“to want, desire”). Cognate with German laden (“to invite”), Icelandic laða (“to attract”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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