• IPA: /laɪ/

From Middle English leye, lye, from Old English lēah, lēag, from Proto-West Germanic *laugu, from Proto-Germanic *laugō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃-.

lye

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

• French: soude, soude caustique, lessive de soude, potasse caustique, potasse
• German: Lauge
• Italian: liscivia, cenerata, ranno
• Portuguese: lixívia
• Russian: щёлок
• Spanish: lejía

• French: soude caustique, hydroxyde de sodium
• German: Ätznatron, kaustisches Soda
• Italian: idrossido di sodio, soda caustica
• Portuguese: soda cáustica
• Russian: ка́устик

lye (lyes, present participle lying; simple past and past participle lyed)

1. To treat with lye.

Variant of lie now used in a specialised sense; compare sett.

lye (lyes, present participle lying; simple past lay, past participle lain)

1. Obsolete spelling of lie.
   • 1654, 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.

   • 1687, [John Dryden], “The Third Part”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC ↗, page 88 ↗:

     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, […]

lye (plural lyes)

1. Obsolete spelling of lie
2. (UK, rail) A short side line, connected with the main line; a turn-out; a siding.

1. (with the) A suburban area in the Dudley (OS grid ref SO9284).
2. (rare) A female given name.