Word.ws English Dictionary

laved

laved is the simple past and past participle of lave.

Meaning of lave

Verb

lave (third-person singular simple present laves, present participle laving, simple past and past participle laved)

  1. (transitive) To bathe or wash (someone or something).
    • [M]y houſe vvithin the City / Is richly furniſhed vvith plate and gold, / Baſons and evvers to laue her dainty hands: […]c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (transitive) Of a river or other water body: to flow along or past (a place or thing); to wash.
    • VVith roomy decks, her Guns of mighty ſtrength, / (VVhoſe lovv-laid mouthes each mounting billovv laves:) / Deep in her draught, and vvarlike in her length, / She ſeems a Sea-vvaſp flying on the vvaves.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 153, page 39
  3. (transitive) Followed by into, on, or upon: to pour (water or some other liquid) with or as if with a ladle into or on someone or something; to lade, to ladle.
    • Then the Lead being melted, […] it is laved into the Pan, […]1703, Richard Neve, “Lead”, in The City and Country Purchaser, and Builder’s Dictionary: Or, The Compleat Builders Guide. […], 2nd edition, London: […] D. Browne, […]; J. and B. Sprint […], G....
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To remove (something), as if by washing away with water.
    • And now, she sat down under the leafless tree, to weep; and in those bitter tears, childhood itself was laved from her soul for ever.1843, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Broken Gittern”, in The Last of the Barons, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I (The Adventures of Master Marmaduke Nevile), page 36
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To surround or gently touch (someone or something), as if with water.
    • [W]hen the midnight moon did lave / Her forehead in the silver wave, / How solemn on the ear would come / The holy mattin's distant hum, […]1810, Walter Scott, “Canto I. The Chase.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William...
  6. (figuratively, transitive) Chiefly in sexual contexts: to lick (someone or something).
    • "Who could resist such a temptation?" he drawled, and bent to lave each nipple with his tongue till the satin was wet and clinging.1998, Miranda Lee, The Boss’s Baby, Richmond, Surrey: Harlequin Mills & Boon, →ISBN, page 102

See all 16 meanings of lave

Words formed from laved

Questions about laved

What is laved the simple past and past participle of?
Laved is the simple past and past participle of lave.

Words near laved in the dictionary

  1. lave
  2. lave net
  3. lave nets
  4. Lavecchia
  5. Lavecchias
  6. laved
  7. lavedst
  8. laveer
  9. laveered
  10. laveering
  11. laveers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laved (page history and authors); lave (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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Cite this entry: “laved.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/laved. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.