Link Centre Dictionary

lest

UK/lɛst/ US/liːst/ fairly common formal literary

adverb

1.

for fear that

  • “she tiptoed lest her mother should hear her”
2.

that (after verbs explicitly expressing fear etc.)

  • “he worried lest he should be late”

Origin

c. 1200, contracted from Middle English les te (“less that”), from Old English þȳ lǣs þe (“whereby less that”), from þȳ (instrumental case of demonstrative article þæt (“that”)) + lǣs (“less”) + þe (“that,” relative particle). The þȳ was dropped and the remaining two words contracted into leste.

Phrases

  • in case
  • lest we forget

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.