lit

n.; pl. Litanies [ OE. letanie, OF. letanie, F. litanie, L. litania, Gr. litanei`a, fr. litaney`ein to pray, akin to li`tesqai, li`ssesqai, to pray, lith` prayer. ] A solemn form of supplication in the public worship of various churches, in which the clergy and congregation join, the former leading and the latter responding in alternate sentences. It is usually of a penitential character. [ 1913 Webster ]

Supplications . . . for the appeasing of God's wrath were of the Greek church termed litanies, and rogations of the Latin. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Litharge. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The fruit of a tree native to China (Nephelium Litchi). It is nutlike, having a rough but tender shell, containing an aromatic pulp, and a single large seed. In the dried fruit which is exported the pulp somewhat resembles a raisin in color and form. [ Written also lichi, and lychee. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A genus of East Indian sapindaceous trees consisting of a single species (Litchi Chinensis, syn. Nephelium Litchi) which bears the litchi nut. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a., adv., & n. Little. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. State of being literate. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Literal meaning. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. litéral, littéral, L. litteralis, literalis, fr. littera, litera, a letter. See Letter. ] 1. According to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical; as, the literal meaning of a phrase. [ 1913 Webster ]

It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the owls can not abide. Tyndale. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Following the letter or exact words; not free. [ 1913 Webster ]

A middle course between the rigor of literal translations and the liberty of paraphrasts. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Consisting of, or expressed by, letters. [ 1913 Webster ]

The literal notation of numbers was known to Europeans before the ciphers. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative; matter-of-fact; -- applied to persons. [ 1913 Webster ]

Literal contract (Law), a contract of which the whole evidence is given in writing. Bouvier. --
Literal equation (Math.), an equation in which known quantities are expressed either wholly or in part by means of letters; -- distinguished from a numerical equation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. That which accords with the letter; a mode of interpreting literally; adherence to the letter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Fine Arts) The tendency or disposition to represent objects faithfully, without abstraction, conventionalities, or idealization. [ 1913 Webster ]