Word.ws English Dictionary

lew

/ljuː/

lew noun: a French gold coin circulated in 15th-century Scotland. Also the alternative form of lo or look.

lew: a French gold coin circulated in 15th-century Scotland
Image: PHGCOM, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

lew (plural lews or lewis or leois)

  1. (Scotland, obsolete) A French gold coin circulated in 15th-century Scotland.
    • ...þe Ingliss noble, henry, ande Eduarde wᵗ þe ross, þe franche crowne, þe salute þe lewe and þe Ridar sall haif courss in þis realme...1467, Scottish Acts of James III, Vol. II, p. 88

Adjective (1)

lew (comparative lewer, superlative lewest)

  1. (obsolete) Sunny; warm.
  2. (dialectal) Lukewarm, tepid.
  3. (dialectal) Alee: protected from the wind.
    • Lee or Lew, Calm, under the wind. Suss.1674, J. Ray, "South & East Countrey Words" in Coll. Eng. Words, p. 70
    • His house... was ‘loo’ from the cold north winds.1892, H. C. O'Neill, Devonshire Idyls, page 7

Noun (2)

lew (plural lews)

  1. (Scotland) Warmth, heat.
    • To th' end a fruitfull lew
      May euerie Climate in his time renew.1605, J. Sylvester translating G. de S. Du Bartas as Deuine Weekes & Wks, Book i, Ch. iv, p. 136
  2. (dialectal) A shelter from the wind, particularly temporary structures raised by shepherds to protect their flocks.
    • Lew, shelter; defence from storms or wind.1825, J. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., p. 52
    • Lew, a thatched hurdle, supported by sticks, and set up in a field to screen lambs, etc. from the wind.1887, W. D. Parish & al., Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect

Verb

lew (third-person singular simple present lews, present participle lewing, simple past and past participle lewed)

  1. (transitive) To make warm or lukewarm.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To become warm.
  3. (transitive) To shelter from the wind.
    • Lew... Those trees will lew the house when they're up-grown.1887, W. D. Parish & al., Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect

Adjective (2)

lew (comparative more lew, superlative most lew)

  1. Weak.
  2. Sickly-looking, pale, wan.
    • Mi bodi wexit lewe.c. 1325, "Old Age" in T. Wright & al.'s 1845 Reliquiae Antiquae, Vol. II, p. 211

Proper noun capitalized: Lew

Lew (plural Lews)

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Lewis.
    1. A male given name.
      • When Lew Wasserman reinvented the studio system, leadership skills grew harder to find and the number of modern studio conglomerates boiled down to six, as discussed in chapters 15 to 20.2019, Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System: A History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN
  2. A surname.

Also used as

lew is also the alternative form of lo or look.

lew is also the alternative form of lue.

Forms of lew

Noun
plurallews
plurallewis
pluralleois
alternative formlewe
Adjective
comparativelewer
superlativelewest
alternative formlue
alternative formloo
alternative formlooe
alternative formlee
comparativemore lew
superlativemost lew
Verb
third-person singular presentlews
present participlelewing
past participlelewed
pastlewed

Plural of lew: lews

Origin of lew

From corruption of French louis, from Louis, presumably Louis IX or Louis XI, who issued gold écus.

From Middle English lew, lewe, from Old English *hlēowe, *hlīewe (attested adverbially in hlēowe (“warmly”) and as ġehlēowe, ġehlīewe (“warm, sunny, sheltered”), unhlēowe (“not warm, chill”)), from Proto-West Germanic *hliwi, from Proto-Germanic *hliwjaz, *hlēwaz (“warm, lukewarm”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱal(w)e-, *ḱlēw- (“warm, hot”). Cognate with Old Norse hlýr (“warm, mild”), ( > Danish ly (“lukewarm”)), hlær, German lau, which are themselves akin to Old Norse hlé (“lee”), Danish læ (“shelter”). Compare lee.

Uncertain, but compare Old English ġelewed (“weakness, infirmity”) and limlǣweo (“limb-weak, lame”). Possibly related to Proto-Germanic *laiwą (“damage”); compare Old Norse læ (“venom, bane”).

Words formed from lew

Phrases with lew

Words that rhyme with lew

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lew

What does lew mean?
Lew means a French gold coin circulated in 15th-century Scotland.
What part of speech is lew?
Lew can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lew?
Lew is pronounced /ljuː/.
What is the plural of lew?
The plural of lew is lews.

Words near lew in the dictionary

  1. levyne
  2. levynes
  3. levynite
  4. levée
  5. levées
  6. lew
  7. Lew Chewan
  8. Lewallen
  9. Lewallens
  10. Lewandowski
  11. Lewandowskies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lew (page history and authors); Lew (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lew.wav.

Cite this entry: “lew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.