last

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: läst, IPA^(key): /lɑːst/
• Rhymes: -ɑːst
• (General American) enPR: lăst, IPA^(key): /læst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æst
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /last/
• Rhymes: -ast
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ɫast/
• Rhymes: -ast

From Middle English last, latst, syncopated variant of latest.

last (not comparable)

1. Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

   “Eyes Wide Shut” was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick.

2. Most recent, latest, last so far.
   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

     In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year.

   The last time I saw him, he was married.

   I have received your note dated the 17th last, and am responding to say that […]

   .   (archaic usage)

3. Farthest of all from a given quality, character, or condition; most unlikely, or least preferable.

   He is the last person to be accused of theft.

   The last person I want to meet is Helen.

   More rain is the last thing we need right now.

4. Being the only one remaining of its class.

   Japan is the last empire.

5. Supreme; highest in degree; utmost.
   • R. Hall

     Contending for principles of the last importance.

6. Lowest in rank or degree.

   the last prize

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Alexander Pope to this entry?)

• (final): at the end, caboose, dernier (dated), final, tail end, terminal, ultimate
• (most recent): latest, most recent

• first and last
• last word
• nice guys finish last

last

1. The (one) immediately before the present.

   We went there last year.

2. (of a day of the week) Closest to seven days (one week) ago.

   It's Wednesday, and the party was last Tuesday; that is, not yesterday, but eight days ago.

• (both senses): This cannot be used in past or future tense to refer to a time immediately before the subject matter. For example, one does not say I was very tired yesterday, due to not having slept well last night: last night in that sentence refers to the night before the speaker is speaking, not the night before the "yesterday" to which he refers. He would need to say I was very tired yesterday, due to not having slept well the night before or the like.

last (not comparable)

1. Most recently.

   When we last met, he was based in Toronto.

   • Shakespeare

     How long is't now since last yourself and I / Were in a mask?

2. (sequence) after everything else; finally

   I'll go last.

   last but not least

   • Dryden

     Pleased with his idol, he commends, admires, / Adores; and, last, the thing adored desires.

• (after everything else): finally, lastly; see also Thesaurus:lastly

From Middle English lasten, from Old English lǣstan, from Proto-Germanic *laistijaną. Cognate with German leisten (“yield”).

last (third-person singular simple present lasts, present participle lasting, simple past and past participle lasted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To perform, carry out.
2. (intransitive) To endure, continue over time.

   Summer seems to last longer each year.

   They seem happy now, but that won't last long.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0016:

     Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].

3. (intransitive) To hold out, continue undefeated or entire.

   I don't know how much longer we can last without reinforcements.

• continue
• endure
• survive

• disintegrate
• dissipate
• fall apart
• wear out

• everlasting
• lasting

Various lasts, circa 1930.

From Old English læste, Proto-Germanic *laistiz.

last (plural lasts)

1. A tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes.
   • 2006, Newman, Cathy, Every Shoe Tells a Story, National Geographic (September, 2006), 83,

     How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last, the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.

• cobbler, keep to your last

• Last (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• last on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

last (third-person singular simple present lasts, present participle lasting, simple past and past participle lasted)

1. To shape with a last; to fasten or fit to a last; to place smoothly on a last.

   to last a boot

From Middle English last, from Old English hlæst (“burden, load, freight”), from Proto-Germanic *hlastuz (“burden, load, freight”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- (“to put, lay out”). Cognate with West Frisian lêst, Dutch last, German Last, Swedish last, Icelandic lest.

last (plural lasts)

1. (obsolete) A burden; load; a cargo; freight.
2. (obsolete) A measure of weight or quantity, varying in designation depending on the goods concerned.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, page 114:

     Now we so quietly followed our businesse, that in three moneths wee made three or foure Last of Tarre, Pitch, and Sope ashes [...].

   • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 1, page 169,

     The last of wool is twelve sacks.

3. (obsolete) An old English (and Dutch) measure of the carrying capacity of a ship, equal to two tons.
   • 1942 (1601), T D Mutch, The First Discovery of Australia, page 14,

     The tonnage of the Duyfken of Harmensz's fleet is given as 25 and 30 lasten.

4. A load of some commodity with reference to its weight and commercial value.

• belast

• last at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Alts, SALT, Salt, TLAs, alts, lats, salt, slat

• IPA^(key): /last/, [lasd̥]

From Middle Low German last.

last c (singular definite lasten, plural indefinite laster)

1. cargo
2. cargo hold, hold (cargo area)
3. weight, burden

• (cargo): ladning
• (hold): lastrum

From Old Norse lǫstr

last c (singular definite lasten, plural indefinite laster)

1. vice

See laste (“to load, carry”) and laste (“to blame”).

last

1. imperative of laste

• last on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

• IPA^(key): /lɑst/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑst

From Middle Dutch last, from Old Dutch *last, from Proto-Germanic *hlastuz.

last m (plural lasten, diminutive lastje n)

1. load, weight
2. burden
3. hindrance, problem
4. expense
5. (law) requirement, duty
6. (dated) A measure of volume, 3 cubic meter

• belasten
• lastdrager
• last hebben van
• lastpost
• ten laste leggen
• vaste last

See the etymology of the main entry.

last

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of lassen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of lassen

• stal

last (genitive lasti, partitive lasti)

1. cargo

last

1. partitive singular of laps

• IPA^(key): /last/

From Old Norse lǫstr

last f (genitive singular lastar, plural lastir)

1. vice

From Middle Low German last.

last f (genitive singular lastar, plural lastir)

1. cargo
2. cargo hold, hold (cargo area)

last

1. Second-person singular preterite of lesen.
2. Second-person plural preterite of lesen.

• IPA^(key): /last/
• Rhymes: -ast

last n (genitive singular lasts, no plural)

1. blame

• (blame): baktal

• guðlast (“blasphemy”)

• lasta (“to blame”)

From Old Dutch *last, from Proto-Germanic *hlastuz.

last m or f or n

1. load, weight
2. task, duty, obligation
3. tax (money)
4. (emotional) difficulty, sorrow
5. a unit of volume

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: last
• Limburgish: las

• “last”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “last”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

From Middle Low German last

last f or m (definite singular lasta or lasten, indefinite plural laster, definite plural lastene)

1. a load or cargo

last

1. imperative of laste

• “last” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German last

last f or m (definite singular lasta or lasten, indefinite plural laster or lastar, definite plural lastene or lastane)

1. a load or cargo

• “last” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *laistaz, along with the feminine variant lǣst. Cognate with Middle Dutch leest (Dutch leest), Old High German leist (German Leist), Old Norse leistr (“foot, sock”) (Swedish läst, Danish læst).

• IPA^(key): /lɑːst/

lāst m (nominative plural lāstas)

1. footstep, track

• lǣstan

From Proto-Slavic *volstь.

• IPA^(key): /ˈláːst/
• Tonal orthography: lȃst

lást f (genitive lastí, uncountable)

1. property

• audio

  (file)

last c

1. cargo
2. load; a burden
3. load; a certain amount that can be processed at one time
4. (engineering) load; a force on a structure
5. (electrical engineering) load; any component that draws current or power
6. habit which is difficult to get rid of, vice

   Rökning var hans enda last

• (cargo): lasta, lastbil
• (habit): vana, ovana