From Middle English lasken (“to diminish, weaken (the blood or other body fluids, body tissues, etc.); to thin (the blood through bloodletting); to alleviate (pain, sickness); to grow weak; to shorten (one’s life)”) [and other forms], from Old Northern French *lasquer, Old French lascher, laschier (“to let go of, release; to loosen, relax”) (modern French lâcher (“to let go of, release; to loosen”)), from Vulgar Latin *lascāre, *lassicāre, from Latin *laxicāre, the frequentative of Latin laxāre, the present active infinitive of laxō (“to relax, weaken; to release, undo; to make wide, open”), from laxus (“free, loose, slack; roomy, spacious, wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg-, *(s)leh₁g- (“faint; weak”).
Meanings
(intransitive, obsolete) To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea.
From Middle English laske (“lax, weak; of the bowels: loose”), from Old Northern French *lasque, Old French laske, lasche (“not taut or tight, limp”) (modern French lâche (“loose, slack”)), from Old French lascher, laschier (“to let go of, release; to loosen, relax”): see further at etymology 1.
Meanings
(obsolete) Lax, weak; specifically of the bowels: affected by diarrhoea; loose.
(uncountable) Originally of both persons and animals, now only of animals: looseness of the bowels; diarrhoea; (countable) a bout of this ailment.
Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day. 1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Panick”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book I, page 79:
A graue & learned Miniſter, and an ordinary Preacher at Alcmar in Holland, was one day (as hee was walking in the fields for his recreation) ſuddenly taken with a laske or looſeneſſe, and therevpon compelled to retire to the next ditch; but being ſurpriſed at vnawares, by ſome Gentlewomen of his Pariſh wandering that way; was ſo abaſhed, that hee did neuer after ſhew his head in publike, or come into the Pulpit, but pined away with melancholy: […] 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Shame and Disgrace, Causes”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 6, page 88:
The Emulſion or Decoction of the Seed ſtaieth Lasks and continual Fluxes, eaſeth the Chollick, and allayeth the troubleſom Humors in the Bowels, […] 1652, Nich[olas] Culpeper, “Hemp”, in The English Physitian: Or An Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation. […], London: […] Peter Cole, […], →OCLC, page 64, column 1: