lich

n. [ AS. līc body. See Like, a. ] A dead body; a corpse. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Lich fowl (Zool.), the European goatsucker; -- called also lich owl. --
Lich gate, a covered gate through which the corpse was carried to the church or burial place, and where the bier was placed to await the clergyman; a corpse gate. [ Prov. Eng. ] Halliwell. --
Lich wake, the wake, or watching, held over a corpse before burial. [ Prov Eng. ] Chaucer. --
Lich wall, the wall of a churchyard or burying ground. --
Lich way, the path by which the dead are carried to the grave. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A genus of boas of western North America.
Syn. -- genus Lichanura. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. A Chinese tree (Litchi chinensis) cultivated especially in the Philippines and India for its edible fruit, the litchi nut; sometimes placed in the genus Nephelium.
Syn. -- litchi, litchi tree, Litchi chinensis, Nephelium litchi. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. A Chinese fruit having a thin brittle shell enclosing a sweet jellylike pulp and a single seed; often dried.
Syn. -- litchi, litchi nut, litchee, lichi, leechee, lychee. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L., fr. Gr. leichh`n. ] 1. (Bot.) One of a class of cellular, flowerless plants, (technically called Lichenes), having no distinction of leaf and stem, usually of scaly, expanded, frond-like forms, but sometimes erect or pendulous and variously branched. They derive their nourishment from the air, and generate by means of spores. The species are very widely distributed, and form irregular spots or patches, usually of a greenish or yellowish color, upon rocks, trees, and various bodies, to which they adhere with great tenacity. They are often improperly called rock moss or tree moss. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ A favorite modern theory of lichens (called after its inventor the Schwendener hypothesis), is that they are not autonomous plants, but that they consist of ascigerous fungi, parasitic on algæ. Each lichen is composed of white filaments and green, or greenish, rounded cells, and it is argued that the two are of different nature, the one living at the expense of the other. See Hyphæ, and Gonidia. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) A name given to several varieties of skin disease, esp. to one characterized by the eruption of small, conical or flat, reddish pimples, which, if unchecked, tend to spread and produce great and even fatal exhaustion. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Belonging to, or covered with, lichens. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of, pertaining to, or obtained from, lichens. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lichenic acid. (a) An organic acid, C14H24O3, obtained from Iceland moss. (b) An old name of fumaric acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having the form of a lichen. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Chem.) A substance isomeric with starch, extracted from several species of moss and lichen, esp. from Iceland moss. [ 1913 Webster ]