Lash

How to spell lash

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lash

What does lash mean?

1. verbTo strike forcefully, especially with a whip or with something flexible and stinging.
2. nounOne of the short hairs growing along the edge of an eyelid.
3. verbTo fasten or tie something tightly in place with rope or cord.

Lash in a sentence

• verb

  The trainer would never lash a horse to make it run faster.

• noun

  A stray lash had fallen onto her cheek.

• verb

  The sailors had to lash the cargo firmly to the deck before the crossing.

• verb

  Heavy rain began to lash the windows during the storm.

• noun

  The mascara made every lash look longer and darker.

• verb

  We used bungee cords to lash the kayak onto the roof rack.

Where does lash come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Lash first appears in Middle English around the 1300s as lasshe, and its earliest sense referred to a sudden blow or a stroke given with a whip. Many scholars regard it as imitative in origin, a word coined to echo the sharp, snapping sound of something striking through the air, much like 'flash' and 'crash'. From the literal stroke of a whip the meaning broadened to the whip's flexible end, then to the act of binding things tightly with rope, since a lashing rope was pulled taut with the same snapping force. The sense of 'eyelash' grew from the idea of a fine, hairlike fringe that flicks, and it became common from the 1500s onward. The spelling has stayed admirably simple and phonetic, which is unusual; the only real care needed is doubling nothing and remembering the single 'sh' at the end.

How the word is built

• lash (single root word, no affixes; from Middle English lasshe, originally imitative of a sudden striking movement)