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lither

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lither¹

  • /ˈlɪðə/ UK
  • /ˈlɪðɚ/ US

Rhymes with -ɪðə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

From Middle English lither, lyther (“deceitful; evil; false; treacherous; sinful, wicked; leading to cruelty, injustice, or wickedness, perverted; of a country: filled with wicked people; cruel, fierce; dangerous, deadly; frightening; grievous, painful; harmful, injurious; miserable, paltry, poor, worthless; feeble, sluggish; cowardly”) [and other forms], from Old English lȳþre (“bad, wicked; base, mean, wretched; corrupt”) [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *lūþrijaz (“bad; dissolute; neglected; useless”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“limp, slack”).

Sense 1.2 (“flexible, supple; agile, lithe”) is influenced by lithe.

Cognates

Dutch lodder (“wanton person”), loddering (“drowsy; trifling; wanton”)

German liederlich (“dissolute”), German lotterig (“slovenly”), lüderlich (“slovenly”)

Old English loþrung (“delusion, rubbish, nonsense”), loddere (“beggar”)

adjective more lither · most lither · lidder

  1. UK, archaic, dialectal Lazy, slothful; listless. After the same manner a Monk (I mean those lither, idle, lazie Monks) doth not labour and work, as do the Peasant and Artificer: doth not ward and defend the countrey, as doth the man of warre: cureth not the sick and diseased, as the Physician doth: doth neither preach nor teach, as do the Evangeli

    Similar: bone-idle, fainéant, idle, indolent, inert, lackadaisical, lazy, lither, otiose, slothful, sluggish, swear · Opposite: abuzz, active, agile, airy, alive, animate, animated, brisk, busy, busy as a bee, buxom, buzzing

  2. UK, archaic, dialectal Flexible, supple; also, agile, lithe. Thou antique Death, vvhich laugh'ſt vs here to ſcorn, / Anon from thy inſulting Tyrannie, / Coupled in bonds of perpetuitie, / Tvvo Talbots vvinged through the lither Skie, / In thy deſpight ſhall ſcape Mortalitie.
  3. obsolete Bad, evil; false. The follest slouen ondyr heuen, / Prowde, peuiche, lyddyr, and lewde, / Malapert, medyllar, nothyng well thewde, […]
  4. obsolete In poor physical condition. [Y]it lyes / Aphipnas ſnorting faſt a ſléepe not mynding for to wake, / Wrapt in a cloke of Bearſkinnes which in Oſſa mount were take. And in his lither hand he hilld a potte of wyne.

lither²

  • /ˈlaɪðə/ UK
  • /ˈlaɪðɚ/ US

Where it comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

adjective

  1. comparative comparative form of lithe: more lithe

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Cite this
MLA

"lither." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/lither. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

lither. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/lither

Chicago

"lither." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/lither.

BibTeX
@misc{lither_2026,
  title = {lither},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/lither},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}