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/lif/ Listen

noun

Lief n. Same as Lif.

Lief n. A dear one; a sweetheart. (Obs.)

adjective

Lief adj. (Written also lieve)

Dear; beloved. (Obs., except in poetry.) "My liefe mother." "My liefest liege." "As thou art lief and dear."

Note: (Used with a form of the verb to be, and the dative of the personal pronoun.) Pleasing; agreeable; acceptable; preferable. (Obs.) See Lief, adv., and Had as lief, under Had. "Full lief me were this counsel for to hide." "Death me liefer were than such despite."

Willing; disposed. (Obs.) "I am not lief to gab." "He up arose, however lief or loth."

adverb

Lief adv. Gladly; willingly; freely; now used only in the phrases, had as lief, and would as lief; as, I had, or would, as lief go as not. "All women liefest would Be sovereign of man's love." "I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines." "Far liefer by his dear hand had I die." Note: The comparative liefer with had or would, and followed by the infinitive, either with or without the sign to, signifies prefer, choose as preferable, would or had rather. In the 16th century rather was substituted for liefer in such constructions in literary English, and has continued to be generally so used. See Had as lief, Had rather, etc., under Had.

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Etymology of 'Lief'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lief" Quotes from Famous Books

... It is bad enough following the opera. All that one wishes to do in one case is to look, just as in the other case all one wishes to do is to listen. We would as lief try to think out the full meaning of a Browning poem in the pleasure it gave us, as to mix our joy in the opera or the ballet with any severe question ...

— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells

... just as lief tell you what, Norton; only it is something you don't care about, and it ...

— Trading • Susan Warner

... if you've counted on more.' A flush ran up into his face and his eyes were inscrutable. He was conscious of being in the absurd mood to note trifles; John had come with his memoranda, John had meant to ask him for the money. 'I'd just as lief pay twenty-five hundred extra now as at any time.' And with lowered head and sputtering pen ...

— The Desert Valley • Jackson Gregory

... wakeful night in a kind of powerless despair and rage against his iniquitous fortune. It was the softest hand that struck him, the gentlest and most compassionate nature that persecuted him. "I would as lief," he said, "have pleaded guilty to the murder, and have suffered for it like any other felon, as have to endure the torture to which my ...

— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... I am not to travel with my young lady on her journey," she said; "but, so far as her way lies toward London, I am going. My sister wants me there, and I do just as lief be in a tomb as stay at Oakhurst when Lady Clara is away. So, as she is willing, I shall just leave her at the junction, and go up to London. That I can do in spite of the crabbed old thing at Houghton, who wants her at first ...

— The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals • Ann S. Stephens

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