loth

comparative lother · superlative lothest

1. UKalternativeAlternative form of loath.

   I was loth to return to the office without the Henderson file.

   5 more examples

   If there bee never a Servant-monster i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he sayes ; nor a nest of Antiques ? Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like those that beget Tales, Tempests, and such like Drolleries, […]

   1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   Then ſaid Faint-heart, Deliver thy Purſe; but he making no haſte to do it (for he was loth to loſe his Money,) Miſtrust ran up to him, and thruſting his hand into his Pocket, pull'd out thence a bag of Silver.

   1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 166

   "And thereupon I pledge thee," said the young nobleman, "which on any other argument I were loth to do—thinking of Ned as somewhat the cut of a villain."

   1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 82

   If I to wed the girl am loth / A breach 'twill surely be—

   1875, Arthur Sullivan (music), W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert (lyrics), Trial by Jury. A Novel and Original Dramatic Cantata, London: Walter Smith, […], →OCLC, page 15

   Ah! dear one, I've been old so long, / It seems that age is loth to part, / Though days and years have never a song, / And, oh! have they still the art / That warmed the pulses of heart to heart?

   1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Alas, So Long!”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, pages 297–298, lines 9–13

plural loths

1. historicalA measure of weight formerly used in Germany, the Netherlands and some other parts of Europe, equivalent to half of the local ounce.First known use 17th c.

   It is not a matter of body but of virtues, which is why the fifth essence was invented, of which one loth is superior to the twenty pounds of the body from which it was extracted.

   1999, Paracelsus, “Opus Paramirum”, in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, transl., Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, page 100

plural Loths

1. A surname.