Lath
//lɑːθ// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A thin, narrow strip, fastened to the rafters, studs, or floor beams of a building, for the purpose of supporting a covering of tiles, plastering, etc.
""You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.""
- 2 Alternative form of lat (“staff; monumental pillar”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 a narrow thin strip of wood used as backing for plaster or to make latticework wordnet
- 4 Microscopic, needle-like crystals, usually of plagioclase feldspar, in a glassy groundmass
- 5 One of the sharp-edged, thick planks driven forward to hold back loose earth or mud when digging the way through for tunnelling or spiling. Also called a spill.
Verb
- 1 To cover or line with laths. transitive
Example
More examples"You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut."
Etymology
From Middle English laththe, laþþe, earlier lathe, laþe, altered from Old English lætt (“lath”), from Proto-West Germanic *lattu, from Proto-Germanic *lattō, *laþþō (compare Dutch lat, German Latte) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lat- (compare Welsh llath (“rod, wand, yard”)).
Related phrases
More for "lath"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.