lights
noun/laɪts/
1
The lungs, now chiefly of an animal (being lighter than adjacent parts).
- But forst him gape and gaspe, with dread aghast, / As if his lungs and lites were nigh asunder brast.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- […] / hard puffing breasts and dance-o'erwearied lungs. / And truly had the crier will'd to shout / The doughty Piper's name through polish's trump, / His breath had not suffic'd to twang it out, / So did the poor man's lights puff, pant, and jump: / Wherefore to rest them from that dancing-bout, / […]1838, William Tennant, Anster fair, a poem, page 22:
1 more example
- A hog's lights (or lungs), spleen, and brain found their way into dishes, as did the heart, liver, kidneys, and head, all considered delicacies. Even the feet, ears, and tail were eaten. The hooves were boiled to make glue.2013, Dean King, The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys: The True Story, Little, Brown, →ISBN:
- Derived terms
- according to one's lights, by one's lights, rising of the lights