lattice

plural lattices · alternative lettice

1. A flat panel constructed with widely-spaced crossed thin strips of wood or other material, commonly used as a garden trellis.

   It was now in ruin: the deer had climbed the broken palings, and reposed among the flowers; grass grew on the threshold, and the swinging lattice creaking to the wind, gave signal of utter desertion.

   1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter VII, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   As we descended the long wooden stairway that leads from the central tower to the Island of Inchgarvie, the straight and simple outlines of the internal viaduct stood out in sharp contrast to the long sweep of the massive tubular arms of the cantilevers, and the complicated network of the lattice cross girders.

   1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 150

   Synonyms: latticework

2. governmentA bearing with vertical and horizontal bands that cross each other.
3. chemistryA regular spacing or arrangement of geometric points, often decorated with a motif.
4. entertainmentA model of the tuning relationships of a just intonation system, comprising an array of points in a periodic multidimensional pattern.
5. In any of several technical senses, a substructure with properties analogous to those the set of points with integer coordinates bears in relation to the full Euclidian space these points are contained in.
   1. algebraA discrete subgroup of Rⁿ which is isomorphic to Zⁿ (considered as an additive group) and which spans the real vector space Rⁿ.
   2. Lie theory; generalizing noun sense 5.1; Lie theory; generalizing noun sense 5.1algebraA discrete subgroup L of a given locally compact group G whose quotient space G/L has finite invariant measure.
   3. ring theory; generalizing noun sense 5.1; ring theory; generalizing noun sense 5.1algebraA finitely generated R-submodule of V which spans V over F. (In this case the submodule is called an R-lattice).
6. mathematicsA partially ordered set in which every pair of elements has a unique supremum and a unique infimum.

present singular third person lattices · participle present latticing · participle past latticed · past latticed · alternative lettice

1. To make a lattice of.

   to lattice timbers

2. To close, as an opening, with latticework; to furnish with a lattice.

   to lattice a window