lather
UK/ˈlɑː.ðə//ˈlæð.ɚ/
lather noun: the foam made by rapidly stirring soap and water.
Noun
lather (countable and uncountable, plural lathers)
- The foam made by rapidly stirring soap and water.
- Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 3
- Foam from profuse sweating, as of a horse.
- A state of agitation.
Verb
lather (third-person singular simple present lathers, present participle lathering, simple past and past participle lathered)
- To cover with lather.
- I lathered my body with lavender-scented soap.
- To beat or whip.
- To form lather or froth, as a horse does when profusely sweating.
- I woke Corporal Honda to see to the horse. Heavily lathered and breathing hard, it had obviously come a long way at high speed.1997, Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; republished New York: Vintage Books, 1998, →ISBN, page 147
lather meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu
lather in Tamil
- நுரை
lather in Marathi
- lather
- फेस phes
lather in Urdu
- جھاگ, کف صابن
lather in Telugu
- foam of soap and water
- నురగ nuraga
More languagesFewer languages
- lather in Malayalam
- പത pata
- lather in Kannada
- ನೊರೆ, ಬುರುಗು
- lather in Persian
- کف kaf
Examples of lather in a sentence
- Peter dipped the whisk in lather and applied it to his face, so he could start shaving.
- She was in a lather because she couldn't find her passport.
- Don't get yourself into a lather about anything that idiot says. It's not worth it!
Synonyms of lather
Forms of lather
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lathers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | lathers |
| present participle | lathering |
| past participle | lathered |
| past | lathered |
Origin of lather
From Middle English lather, from Old English lēaþor (“a kind of nitre used for soap, soda”), from Proto-West Germanic *lauþr, from Proto-Germanic *lauþrą (“that which is used for washing, soap”), from Proto-Indo-European *lówh₃trom (“that which is used for washing”), from *lewh₃-, *lowh₃- (“to wash, bathe”). Cognate with Swedish lödder (“lather, foam, froth, soap”), Icelandic löður (“foam, froth, a kind of niter used for soap”), Old Irish loathar (“wash-basin”), Ancient Greek λουτρόν (loutrón, “a bath, wash-room”), Latin lavō (“to wash”), Albanian laj (“to wash”), Ancient Greek λούω (loúō). More at lye. Compare typologically Russian мы́ло (mýlo) (a nomen instrumenti of мыть (mytʹ)).
From Middle English letheren, from Old English līeþran, from Proto-West Germanic *lauþrijan, from Proto-Germanic *lauþrijaną (“to soap, wash”). Cognate with Old Norse leyðra (“to wash, lather”).
Words formed from lather
Words that rhyme with lather
Questions about lather
- What does lather mean?
- Lather means the foam made by rapidly stirring soap and water.
- What is lather in Tamil?
- Lather in Tamil is நுரை. See Lather meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is lather?
- Lather can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce lather?
- Lather is pronounced /ˈlɑː.ðə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of lather?
- The plural of lather is lathers.
Words near lather in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lather (page history and authors); lather (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); फेस (Marathi) (page history and authors); lather (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lather (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-lather.ogg, en-au-lather.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lather.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lather. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.