Skip to content

lathe

noun

  1. machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis
L23997 on Wikidata ↗

verb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L23998 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /leɪð/

noun

Etymology: From Middle English lathe (“turning-lathe; stand”), from Old Norse hlað (“pile, heap”)—compare dialectal Danish lad (“stand, support frame”) (as in drejelad (“turning-lathe”), savelad (“saw bench”)), dialectal Norwegian la, lad (“pile, small wall”), dialectal Swedish lad (“folding table, lay of a loom”)—from hlaða (“to load”). More at lade.

  1. A machine tool used to shape a piece of material, or workpiece, by rotating the workpiece against a cutting tool.

    He shaped the bedpost by turning it on a lathe.

    The accidental amputation was due to the guard not being on the lathe.

  2. The movable swing frame of a loom, carrying the reed for separating the warp threads and beating up the weft.
  3. A granary; a barn.

    […]lathe, a barn, is still used in some parts of Yorkshire, but chiefly in local designations, being otherwise obsolescent ; see the Cleveland and Whitby glossaries. ‘The northern man writing to his neighbor may say, “My lathe standeth neer the kirkegarth,” for My barn standeth neere the churchyard’

verb

Etymology: From Middle English lathe (“turning-lathe; stand”), from Old Norse hlað (“pile, heap”)—compare dialectal Danish lad (“stand, support frame”) (as in drejelad (“turning-lathe”), savelad (“saw bench”)), dialectal Norwegian la, lad (“pile, small wall”), dialectal Swedish lad (“folding table, lay of a loom”)—from hlaða (“to load”). More at lade.

  1. To shape with a lathe.
  2. To produce a three-dimensional model by rotating a set of points around a fixed axis.