Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An open framework made of strips of metal, wood, or similar material overlapped or overlaid in a regular, usually crisscross pattern.
  • noun A structure, such as a window, screen, or trellis, made of or containing such a framework.
  • noun Something, such as a decorative motif or heraldic bearing, that resembles an open, patterned framework.
  • noun A regular, periodic configuration of points, particles, or objects throughout an area or a space, especially the arrangement of ions or molecules in a crystalline solid.
  • noun The spatial arrangement of fissionable and nonfissionable materials in a nuclear reactor.
  • transitive verb To construct or furnish with a lattice or latticework.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In textile-manuf., an apron or a conveyer made of laths or slats, and designed to carry material into a machine or from one machine to another.
  • noun In mathematics, a net made of straight lines, vertical and horizontal, and inclosing rectangular compartments.
  • noun Work with open spaces formed by crossing, interlacing, or joining laths, bars, or rods of wood or metal.
  • noun Anything made of or covered with strips interwoven so as to form a sortof network; specifically, a window, window-blind, or screen made of laths or strips which cross one another like network, so as to leave open interstices.
  • noun In heraldry, a bearing representing a series of perpendicular and horizontal strips crossing one another over the field or a part of it.
  • To furnish with a lattice.
  • To give the form or appearance of a lattice to.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To make a lattice of.
  • intransitive verb To close, as an opening, with latticework; to furnish with a lattice.
  • intransitive verb to cover or inclose with a lattice.
  • noun Any work of wood, metal, plastic, or other solid material, made by crossing a series of parallel laths, or thin strips, with another series at a diagonal angle, and forming a network with openings between the strips; ; -- called also latticework.
  • noun (Her.) The representation of a piece of latticework used as a bearing, the bands being vertical and horizontal.
  • noun (Crystallography) The arrangement of atoms or molecules in a crystal, represented as a repeating arrangement of points in space, each point representing the location of an atom or molecule; called also crystal lattice and space lattice.
  • noun a bridge supported by lattice girders, or latticework trusses.
  • noun (Arch.) a girder of which the wed consists of diagonal pieces crossing each other in the manner of latticework.
  • noun (Bot.) an aquatic plant of Madagascar (Ouvirandra fenestralis), whose leaves have interstices between their ribs and cross veins, so as to resemble latticework. A second species is Ouvirandra Berneriana. The genus is merged in Aponogeton by recent authors.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A flat panel constructed with widely-spaced crossed thin strips of wood or other material, commonly used as a garden trellis.
  • noun crystallography a regular spacing or arrangement of geometric points, often decorated with a motif.
  • noun order theory A partially ordered set in which every pair of elements has a unique supremum and an infimum.
  • noun group theory A discrete subgroup of Rn which spans the real vector space Rn.
  • verb To make a lattice of.
  • verb To close, as an opening, with latticework; to furnish with a lattice.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an arrangement of points or particles or objects in a regular periodic pattern in 2 or 3 dimensions
  • noun framework consisting of an ornamental design made of strips of wood or metal
  • noun small opening (like a window in a door) through which business can be transacted

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English latis, from Old French lattis, from latte, lath, of Germanic origin .]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English latis, from Middle French lattis ("lathing"), from Old French lattis, from latte ("a lath"), from Frankish *latta (“a lath”), from Proto-Germanic *lattō(n), *laþþō(n), *laþēn (“lath, board”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lat- (“beam, log”). Cognate with Old High German latta (German Latte, "lath"), Old English lætt ("lath"), Middle Low German lāde ("plank, counter, sales counter"), German Laden ("shop"). More at lath.

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Examples

  • Clear leaves dot the flowers while daffodil crystals twine like flowery serpents through the black satin lattice framework.

    Valentines, part the first mllelaurel 2009

  • And no, we can't just let the system settle into its lowest-energy state and see what results; their proof only works if the lattice is infinitely large.

    Discourse.net: Quantity Has a Quality All of Its Own 2008

  • Two face-centred cubic lattices can also interpenetrate in such a way that every point belonging to the one lattice is at the centre of gravity of a tetrahedron whose vertices are points belonging to the other lattice.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1915 - Presentation Speech 1967

  • But a new paradigm is taking over, one that looks less like a ladder and more like a "lattice" -- a shape that allows for stepping off and stepping back on, caretaking for children and aging parents, working non-traditional hours, taking detours into various fields, developing various skills etc.

    Women in Science Link Roundup: January 12 Edition Peggy 2009

  • There was no mistaking it, it was a "lattice" -- a real one, with old bluish panes set in sturdy black moldings, not the stage variety made of plate glass and papier-mache that he had seen in the sham cottage of aesthetic suburbs at home.

    The Refugees 1919

  • In mathematics, a lattice is a multidimensional structure that extends infinitely in any direction.

    Cathy Benko: Replace Corporate Ladders With Lattices Cathy Benko 2011

  • My ophthalmologist said that I had a common condition called lattice thinning, likely in part hereditary, which would make me more susceptible to a retinal tear.

    The $1,000 Genome Kevin Davies 2010

  • The lattice is His love and His word the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the framework - and the vines are my identity in Christ.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Happy 2008

  • The lattice is His love and His word the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the framework - and the vines are my identity in Christ.

    The Lionization of Roses Happy 2008

  • It seems that heat is propagated not by the movement of energetic electrons—in solids of ionic- or covalent-bonded compounds, the electrons are not free to move—but by the vibration of individual molecules or a portion of the lattice, which is transferred to neighboring areas.

    On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

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