lists

Noun

list (plural lists)

1. A strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
   • 1. Gent[leman]. Well: there went but a paire of ſheeres betweene vs. / Luc[io]. I grant: as there may betweene the Liſts, and the Veluet. Thou art the Liſt. / 1. Gent. And thou the Veluet. Thou art good Veluet; thou'rt a three pild-piece I warrant thee: I had as liefe be a Lyſt of an Engliſh...c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
2. Material used for cloth selvage.
   • Previous to the offering up of prayer, however, the persons chosen for this office [of praying for the people] had divested themselves of their boots and put on list slippers, their hands being washed by "the descendants of Levi" at a basin near the Holy of Holies.1871 September 18, “The Jewish New Year”, in The Jewish Herald: A Record of Christian Effort for the Salvation of Israel, London: John Snow & Co., […]; and the British Society [for the Propagation of...
3. A register or roll of paper consisting of a compilation or enumeration of a set of possible items; the compilation or enumeration itself.
   • Natures that haue much Heat, and great and violent deſires and Perturbations, are not ripe for Action, till they haue paſſed the Meridian of their yeares: As it was with Iulius Cæſar, and Septimius Seuerus. […] And yet he [Septimus Severus] was the Ableſt Emperour, almoſt, of all the Liſt.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age. XLII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 247–248
4. (historical, in plural) The barriers or palisades used to fence off a space for jousting or tilting tournaments.
   • On pain of death, no person be so bold
     Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists,
     Except the marshal and such officers
     Appointed to direct these fair designs.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
5. (historical, in plural) The scene of a military contest; the ground or field of combat; an enclosed space that serves as a battlefield; the site of a pitched battle.
   • The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists, hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way
6. A codified representation of a list used to store data or in processing; especially, in the Lisp programming language, a data structure consisting of a sequence of zero or more items.
   • Lisp is an applicative language. This means that it is structured around applying functions (operations) to a linked list of arguments that accompany those functions. […] A function call or function definition is only coded in the syntax of a list, which can be of an indefinite length. Thus, the...1985 March 10, Ed Acly, “A Tale of Three Languages: C, Ada & Lisp”, in Computerworld: The Newsweekly for the Computer Community, volume XIX, number 12, Framingham, Mass.: CW Communications, →ISSN...

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