lot Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
    plenty; great deal; pot; sight; flock; mint; slew; mountain; deal; wad; muckle; pile; mickle; raft; quite a little; passel; hatful; mess; spate; heap; peck; stack; good deal; batch; tidy sum; mass.
    • a batch of letters
    • a deal of trouble
    • a lot of money
    • he made a mint on the stock market
    • see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos
    • it must have cost plenty
    • a slew of journalists
    • a wad of money
  2. noun a parcel of land having fixed boundaries
    • he bought a lot on the lake
  3. noun an unofficial association of people or groups
    band; circle; set.
    • the smart set goes there
    • they were an angry lot
  4. noun your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
    fortune; destiny; fate; portion; luck; circumstances.
    • whatever my fortune may be
    • deserved a better fate
    • has a happy lot
    • the luck of the Irish
    • a victim of circumstances
    • success that was her portion
  5. noun anything (straws or pebbles etc.) taken or chosen at random
    draw.
    • the luck of the draw
    • they drew lots for it
  6. noun any collection in its entirety
    caboodle; bunch.
    • she bought the whole caboodle
  7. noun (Old Testament) nephew of Abraham; God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but chose to spare Lot and his family who were told to flee without looking back at the destruction
  8. verb divide into lots, as of land, for example
  9. verb administer or bestow, as in small portions
    dish out; deal; parcel out; dispense; distribute; dole out; administer; allot; deal out; mete out; shell out.
    • administer critical remarks to everyone present
    • dole out some money
    • shell out pocket money for the children
    • deal a blow to someone
    • the machine dispenses soft drinks

WordNet

Lot noun
Etymology
AS. hlot; akin to hleótan to cast lots, OS. hlt lot, D. lot, G. loos, OHG. lz, Icel. hlutr, Sw. lott, Dan. lod, Goth. hlauts. Cf. Allot, Lotto, Lottery.
Definitions
  1. That which happens without human design or forethought; chance; accident; hazard; fortune; fate.
    But save my life, which lot before your foot doth lay. Spenser.
  2. Anything (as a die, pebble, ball, or slip of paper) used in determining a question by chance, or without man's choice or will; as, to cast or draw lots.
    The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Prov. xvi. 33.
    If we draw lots, he speeds. Shak.
  3. The part, or fate, which falls to one, as it were, by chance, or without his planning.
    O visions ill foreseen! Each day's lot's Enough to bear. Milton.
    He was but born to try The lot of man -- to suffer and to die. Pope.
  4. A separate portion; a number of things taken collectively; as, a lot of stationery; -- colloquially, sometimes of people; as, a sorry lot; a bad lot.
    I, this winter, met with a very large lot of English heads, chiefly of the reign of James I. Walpole.
  5. A distinct portion or plot of land, usually smaller than a field; as, a building lot in a city.
    The defendants leased a house and lot in the city of New York. Kent.
  6. A large quantity or number; a great deal; as, to spend a lot of money; lots of people think so. Colloq.
    He wrote to her . . . he might be detained in London by a lot of business. W. Black.
  7. A prize in a lottery. Obs. Evelyn.
Lot transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Lotted ; present participle & verbal noun Lotting
Definitions
  1. To allot; to sort; to portion. R.

Webster 1913