Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- conj. For fear that: tiptoed lest the guard should hear her; anxious lest he become ill.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- For fear that; that … not; so that … not: as, he fled lest (or for fear that) he should be killed; take heed lest you fall (that you fall not).
- etc. A Middle English form of last, least, list, lust.
Wiktionary
- conj. For fear that; that . . . not; in order that . . . not; in case.
- conj. That (without the negative particle); -- after certain expressions denoting fear or apprehension.
GNU Webster's 1913
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English (thȳ) lǣs the, (whereby) less that, so that not : lǣs, less; see less + the, relative conjunction; see to- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“An-Nahar (the right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrian (people), anti-Palestinian) newspaper has translated this article from Haaretz but it did not translate the title lest its readers get upset.”
“Suddenly I fear becoming even casually acquainted with a new title lest I somehow curse it to dismal failure.”
“My Goodness, are you people (G. O.P and the impatient) really thinking Obama can solve 8 years of Bush and 6 years of G.O.P. congress control in lest than half a year.”
“So yes again, keep pounding it in lest we get blamed for NOT explaining it enough!”
“The grown0ups cannot step in lest they be accused of silencing a global warming scientist.”
NASA Employees Can Now Invoke The Hansen Precedent - NASA Watch
“So when Mr. Parr, who co-owns RN74 with Mr. Mina, finally made concrete plans to launch the restaurant, some colleagues tried to persuade him to change the name lest people think he was being a copycat.”
The Wall Street Journal: Bay Area Restaurants Invoke the Open Road
“The only downside is having to keep the phone plugged in lest I run the battery down.”
AOL Turns the iPhone Into an Expensive Radio - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
“Mine (a design blog about people) is kind of groan-inducing, but I think it's better and more accurate than my first, "when design takes priority, the result is often Strange Closets;" tags shouldn't reference their own title lest they go blind.”
Tate Gunnerson: Home Decor Trend Report: Snakes Slither Hither
“The ironic moral might be: don't give your child a common name lest the name be conflated after the fact.”
Spencer Lives - and He Teaches at Harvard, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“All of this might explain why the press later learned in 1973 that during Nixon had the Secret Service tap Big Don's phone calls lest he do something illegal, or even more problematic embarrassing to his brother.”
The Wall Street Journal: Six Presidential Siblings and the Headaches They Caused
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lest’.
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Fearlobes
EEK! Emotion words and words associated with fear. Let's avoid -phobia words.
terrified, threatened, paralyzed, afraid, tormented, frightened, scared, blench, worried, cowardly, fretful, menaced and 57 more...
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Specificity
Words that have with subtly different meanings from other words.
vestibule, commoditize, commodify, monetize, corroborate, mezzanine, apposite, irony, calefacient, maxim, pandiculate, rarefaction and 19 more...
Kristianto2010 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
1 Corinthians 1:17-25. Lest = in order to prevent, for fear that. Jul 3, 2011
enghoff lest a monster I become. Sep 15, 2007