From Middle English lī̆st, lī̆ste (“band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc.”), from Old English līste (“hem, edge, strip”), or Old French liste, listre (“border; band; strip of paper; list”), or Medieval Latin lista, all from Proto-West Germanic *līstā, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to trace, track”). Cognates * Saterland Frisian Lieste (“margin, strip, list”) * Dutch lijst (“picture frame, list”) * German Low German Liest (“edging, border”) * German Leiste (“strip, rail, ledge; (heraldry) bar”) * Swedish lista (“list”) * Icelandic lista listi (“list”) * Italian lista (“list; strip”) * Portuguese lista (“list”) * Spanish lista (“list, roll; stripe”) * Galician lista (“band, strip; list”) * Finnish lista (“(informal) list; batten”).
A strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
1. Gent[leman]. Well: there went but a paire of ſheeres betweene vs. / Luc[io]. I grant: as there may betweene the Liſts, and the Veluet. Thou art the Liſt. / 1. Gent. And thou the Veluet. Thou art good Veluet; thou'rt a three pild-piece I warrant thee: I had as liefe be a Lyſt of an Engliſh Kerſey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French Veluet. Do I ſpeake feelingly now?c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 62, column 1, lines 27–34:
“Listen! I see it all — down, down even to the stays! Such stays! Six-eight a pair, Polly, with red flannel — or list is it? — that they put into the tops of those fearful things. I can draw you a picture of them.”1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 20:
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Why should we not send a message out over London which would attract to us anyone who might still be alive? I ran across, and pulling at the list-covered rope, I was surprised to find how difficult it was to swing the bell.1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
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Material used for cloth selvage.
Previous to the offering up of prayer, however, the persons chosen for this office [of praying for the people] had divested themselves of their boots and put on list slippers, their hands being washed by "the descendants of Levi" at a basin near the Holy of Holies.1871 September 18, “The Jewish New Year”, in The Jewish Herald: A Record of Christian Effort for the Salvation of Israel, London: John Snow & Co., […]; and the British Society [for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews], […], published 1 November 1871, →OCLC, page 174:
"How is it, then, that the woman who came into the room about nine left to traces with her muddy boots?" / "I am glad you raise the point. It occurred to me at the time. The charwomen are in the habit of taking off their boots at the commissionaire's office, and putting on list slippers."1893, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Naval Treaty”, in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt, →OCLC; republished London: John Murray, […], January 1950, →OCLC, page 255:
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A register or roll of paper consisting of a compilation or enumeration of a set of possible items; the compilation or enumeration itself.
Natures that haue much Heat, and great and violent deſires and Perturbations, are not ripe for Action, till they haue paſſed the Meridian of their yeares: As it was with Iulius Cæſar, and Septimius Seuerus. […] And yet he [Septimus Severus] was the Ableſt Emperour, almoſt, of all the Liſt.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age. XLII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 247–248:
"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?"1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 11–12:
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Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. […] Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism. Dr Yoshimoto and his colleagues would like to add liver cancer to that list.2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut: How microbes promote liver cancer in the overweight”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–73:
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Historical, In plural The barriers or palisades used to fence off a space for jousting or tilting tournaments.
On pain of death, no person be so bold Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists, Except the marshal and such officers Appointed to direct these fair designs.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 3]:
With Truncheon tip'd with Iron head, / The Warrior to the Lists [he] led; […]1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 32:
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Ariſe, O Father of the Trojan State! / The Nations call, thy joyful People wait, / To ſeal the Truce and end the dire Debate. / Paris thy Son, and Sparta’s King advance, / In meaſur’d Liſts to toſs the weighty Lance; […]1715, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book III”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 16, lines 319–323:
William de Wyvil, and Stephen de Martival, […] armed at all points, rode up and down the lists to enforce and preserve good order among the spectators.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter VIII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 139:
They ran down to the lists and Peter came outside the ropes to meet them, his face red and sweaty, his chest heaving.1951, C. S. Lewis, “Chapter 14. How All Were Very Busy”, in Prince Caspian:
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Government, Military, Politics, WarHistorical, In plural The scene of a military contest; the ground or field of combat; an enclosed space that serves as a battlefield; the site of a pitched battle.
The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists, hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences A codified representation of a list used to store data or in processing; especially, in the Lisp programming language, a data structure consisting of a sequence of zero or more items.
Lisp is an applicative language. This means that it is structured around applying functions (operations) to a linked list of arguments that accompany those functions. […] A function call or function definition is only coded in the syntax of a list, which can be of an indefinite length. Thus, the list is the only data structure for a Lisp program.1985 March 10, Ed Acly, “A Tale of Three Languages: C, Ada & Lisp”, in Computerworld: The Newsweekly for the Computer Community, volume XIX, number 12, Framingham, Mass.: CW Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page ID/10, columns 1–2:
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Architecture A little square moulding; a fillet or listel.
STRIÆ, in ancient architecture, the liſts, fillets or rays which ſeparate the ſtriges or flutings of columns.1788, [John Carter], “STRIÆ”, in The Builder’s Magazine: Or, A Universal Dictionary for Architects, Carpenters, Masons, Bricklayers, &c. […], new edition, London: Printed for E. Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 284:
A volute is a kind of spiral scroll, used in the Ionic and Composite capitals, of which it makes the principal characteristic and ornament. […] There are several diversities practised in the volute. In some, the list or edge, throughout all the circumvolutions, is in the same line or plane. […] [I]n others, the canal or one circumvolution is detached from the list of another by a vacuity or aperture.1876, Edward Shaw, Thomas W[illiam] Silloway, George M[ilford] Harding, “Introduction”, in Civil Architecture; being a Complete Theoretical and Practical System of Building, Containing the Fundamental Principles of the Art. […], 11th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry Carey Baird & Co., […], →OCLC, page 22, column 2:
Thus the Aſſe having a peculiar mark of a croſſe made by a black liſt down his back, and another athwart, or at right angles down his ſhoulders; common opinion aſcribes this figure unto a peculiar ſignation; ſince that beaſt had the honour to bear our Saviour on his back.1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the Same [i.e., the Blacknesse of Negroes]”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 6th book, page 282:
[W]ere it good / […] to ſet ſo rich a maine / On the nice hazard of one doubtfull houre? / It were not good for therein ſhould we read / The very bottome and the ſoule of hope, / The very liſt, the very vtmost bound / Of all our fortunes.c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
From Middle English lī̆st, lī̆ste (“band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc.”), from Old English līste (“hem, edge, strip”), or Old French liste, listre (“border; band; strip of paper; list”), or Medieval Latin lista, all from Proto-West Germanic *līstā, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to trace, track”). Cognates * Saterland Frisian Lieste (“margin, strip, list”) * Dutch lijst (“picture frame, list”) * German Low German Liest (“edging, border”) * German Leiste (“strip, rail, ledge; (heraldry) bar”) * Swedish lista (“list”) * Icelandic lista listi (“list”) * Italian lista (“list; strip”) * Portuguese lista (“list”) * Spanish lista (“list, roll; stripe”) * Galician lista (“band, strip; list”) * Finnish lista (“(informal) list; batten”).
As the export market for tropical hardwoods expanded, timber from tropical rain forests very rapidly became the dominant or major forest product, dominant to such an extent that trade figures often do not even list the minor forest products exported, or their value.1993, Ooi Jin Bee, “The Tropical Rain Forest: Patterns of Exploitation and Trade”, in Tropical Deforestation: The Tyranny of Time, Singapore: Singapore University Press, →ISBN, page 62:
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To sew together, as strips of cloth, so as to make a show of colours, or to form a border.
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To cover with list, or with strips of cloth; to put list on; to stripe as if with list.
to list a door
He raised his eyes and saw / The tree that shone white-listed thro' the gloom.1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 142:
[…] It is therefore ordered that the Maior and Aldermen of Colchester [et al.], shall forthwith procure and raise in the said severall townes, and other pleces adjacent, two thousand horses for dragooners, or as manie as possible they may, for the service as aforesaid, and with all possible speed to send them up to London unto Thomas Browne Grocer, and Maximilian Beard Girdler, by us appointed to list horses for the service aforesaid; […]1642 October 28, [Philip Morant], History and Antiquities of the Borough of Colchester, in the County of Essex. […], Colchester, Essex: Printed and sold by I. Marsden, …, published 1810, →OCLC, pages 48–49:
"I have a gun, madam," said little Julian, "and the park-keeper is to teach me how to fire it next year." / "I will list you for my soldier, then," said the Countess.1822, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 107:
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Obsolete To engage in public service by enrolling one's name; to enlist.
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To give a building of architectural or historical interest listed status; see also the adjective listed.
A century later, BR demolished the downside main buildings, so the eastbound and central platforms were promptly listed - which has ensured their survival, albeit increasingly neglected in recent years. This has now been rectified, [...].2021 February 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The London Underground Operational Enhancement Award: Hanwell”, in RAIL, number 946, page 55:
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Of a business To trade on a particular stock exchange.
I was able to invest as soon as the company was listed.
Responsible for public affairs, business strategy, corporate development and finance, he [Donald Tang] now faces the task of getting an initial public offering over the line in London after ditching earlier plans to list in New York in the face of US political opposition.2024 July 13, Laura Onita, Eleanor Olcott, “Shein’s master of reinvention treads tricky path to IPO”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11:
From Middle English list, liste (“ability, cleverness, cunning, skill; adroitness, dexterity; strategem, trick; device, design, token”), from Old English list (“art, craft; cleverness, cunning, experience, skill”), from Proto-West Germanic *listi, from Proto-Germanic *listiz (“art, craft”), from Proto-Indo-European *leys-, *leyǝs- (“furrow, trace, track, trail”). The word is cognate with Dutch list (“artifice, guile, sleight; ruse, strategem”), German List (“cunning, guile; ploy, ruse, trick”), Low German list (“artifice, cunning; prudence, wisdom”), Icelandic list (“art”), Saterland Frisian list (“cunning, knowledge”), Scots list (“art, craft, skill; cunning”), Swedish list (“art; cunning, guile, wile; ruse, trick; stealth”), and possibly Spanish listo (“clever”). It is also related to learn, lore.
In discussing the Syllabus and the last dogma of 1870, so much must be allowed for Italian list and cunning, or a word-fence. An Englishman, with his matter-of-fact way of putting things, is no match for these gentry.1877 November 16, “Vaticanism”, in The Literary World. Choice Readings from the Best New Books, and Critical Reviews, volume XVI, number 420 (New Series), London: James Clarke & Co., […], →OCLC, page 313, column 3:
Sophos, fab[le] 40. "The foxes had heard that the fowls were sick, and went to see them decked in peacock's feathers; said of men who speak friendly, but only with list or cunning within."1893, S[olomon] C[aesar] Malan, chapter XXVI, in Original Notes on the Book of Proverbs. Mostly from Eastern Writings, volumes III (Ch. xxi.–xxxi.), London: Williams and Norgate, […], →OCLC, page 349:
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For when the guileful monster smiled / Snakes left their holes and hissed,— / And stroking soft his silken beard / Raised creatures full of list.1897, Lilian Winser, “Lossenbury Woods”, in Lays and Legends of the Weald of Kent, London: Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 44:
'The general bass, in its fixed lines, is taken by surprise and overwhelmed by List Franz Liszt]' (List = cunning); anonymous lithograph (c 1842).1990, Alexander L. Ringer, “The Rise of Urban Musical Life between the Revolutions, 1789–1848”, in Alexander [L.] Ringer, editor, The Early Romantic Era: Between Revolutions: 1789 and 1848 (Man and Music; 6), Basingstoke, Hampshire; London: The Macmillan Press, →DOI, →ISBN, figure 13, caption, page 22:
[Der] Pleier […] provides a 'courtly corrective' to Daniel in the shape of his hero, Garel. The latter wins his fight not by list but through straightforward knightly prowess, […]1992, Reading Medieval Studies: Annual Proceedings of the Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies in the University of Reading, [Reading, Berkshire]: Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 92:
It is worth noting that, contrary to Alexios who according to his daughter did not scruple to use any tricks to achieve his goal, Manuel [I Komnenos], as depicted by [John] Kinnamos, preferred "to win by war rather than by list"[…].2000, Jakov Ljubarskij, “John Kinnamos as a Writer”, in Cordula Scholz, Georgios Makris, editors, ΠΟΛΥΠΛΕΥΡΟΣ ΝΟΥΣ [POLYPLEUROS NOUS]: Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag [VERSATILE MIND: Miscellanea for Peter Schreiner for His 60th Birthday] (Byzantinisches Archiv [Byzantine Archive]; 19), Munich; Leipzig: K[laus] G[erhard] Saur, →ISBN, footnote 11, page 166:
Etymology From Middle English listen, from Old English hlystan (“to listen”), from hlyst (“hearing”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlusti, from Proto-Germanic *hlustiz (“hearing”).
2 [Soldier] Peace, what noiſe? / 1 [Soldier] Liſt liſt. / 2 Hearke. / 1 Music i' th' Ayre.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 359, column 1:
We list to the trumpings that herald the storm, / To the roll of the drum, and the order to form!1860–1861, “What of the Night?”, in Frank Moore, editor, The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, etc., volume II, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam, […], published 1862, →OCLC, page 96, column 1:
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Be of good cheer, and list to what I speak.1865, Sophocles, “Philoctetes”, in E[dward] H[ayes] Plumptre, transl., The Tragedies of Sophocles: A New Translation, with a Biographical Essay, volume II, London; New York, N.Y.: Alexander Strahan, publisher, →OCLC, page 247, line 1267:
Then way what loſſe your honor may ſuſtaine / If with too credent eare you liſt his ſongs / Or looſe your hart, or your chaſt treaſure open / To his vnmaſtred importunity.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
From Middle English listen, list, liste, leste, lesten (“to choose, desire, wish (to do something)”), from Old English lystan, from Proto-West Germanic *lustijan, from Proto-Germanic *lustijaną, from Proto-Germanic *lustuz (“pleasure”). The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian läste (“to wish for, desire, crave”), West Frisian lêste (“to like, desire”), Dutch lusten (“to appreciate, like; to lust”), German lüsten, gelüsten (“to desire, want, crave”), Danish lyste (“to desire, feel like, want”), Faroese lysta (“to desire”). The noun sense is from the verb, or from Middle English list, liste, lest, leste (“desire, wish; craving, longing; enjoyment, joy, pleasure”), which is derived from Middle English listen, list (verb).
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Archaic To desire, like, or wish (to do something).
who liſt to lyue yn quyetnes by me lett hym beware For I by highe dyſdayne ame made withoute redreſſe and vnkyndenes Alas hathe ſlayne my poore trew hart all comfortlesc. 1536-1542, Thomas Wyatt, “Yf in the world ther be more woo”, in Egerton MS 2711, page 63r:
If thou beeſt a man, ſhew thy ſelfe in thy likeneſs. If thou beeſt a diuell, take't as thou liſt.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12, column 2:
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The winde bloweth where it liſteth, and thou heareſt the ſound thereof, but canſt not tel whence it commeth, and whither it goeth: So is euery one that is borne of the Spirit.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 3:8:
What! would you have us truſt to what Chriſt in his own perſon has done without us! This conceit would looſen the reines of our luſt, and tollerate us to live as we liſt: For what matter how we live, if we may be Juſtified by Chriſts perſonal righteouſneſs from all, when we believe it?1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 206:
Ye are as gods, that can create soil. Soil-creating gods there is no withstanding. They have the might to sell wheat at what price they list; and the right, to all lengths, and famine-lengths,—if they be pitiless infernal gods!1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Unworking Aristocracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker), page 177:
Ye hold me as a woman, weak of will, / And strive to sway me: but my heart is stout, / Nor fears to speak its uttermost to you, / Albeit ye know its message. Praise or blame, / Even as ye list,—I reck not of your words.1881, Aeschylus, “Agamemnon”, in E[dmund] D[oidge] A[nderson] Morshead, transl., The House of Atreus: Being The Agamemnon, Libation-bearers, and Furies of Æschylus. Translated into English Verse, London: Simpkin and Marshall, […]; Winchester, Hampshire: Warren and Son, […], →OCLC, pages 65–66:
Might then I depart, and dwell as listeth me, out of all the world?2016, Graydon Saunders, chapter 13, in Safely You Deliver:
list
noun
Etymology
From Middle English listen, list, liste, leste, lesten (“to choose, desire, wish (to do something)”), from Old English lystan, from Proto-West Germanic *lustijan, from Proto-Germanic *lustijaną, from Proto-Germanic *lustuz (“pleasure”). The word is cognate with Saterland Frisian läste (“to wish for, desire, crave”), West Frisian lêste (“to like, desire”), Dutch lusten (“to appreciate, like; to lust”), German lüsten, gelüsten (“to desire, want, crave”), Danish lyste (“to desire, feel like, want”), Faroese lysta (“to desire”). The noun sense is from the verb, or from Middle English list, liste, lest, leste (“desire, wish; craving, longing; enjoyment, joy, pleasure”), which is derived from Middle English listen, list (verb).
I know too much: / I finde it, I; for when I ha liſt to ſleepe, / Mary, before your Ladiſhip I grant, / She puts her tongue alittle in her heart, / And chides with thinking.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 24: