LOT (lotted, lotting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: lotted    , lotting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Lot mean? 

• LOT (noun)
  The noun LOT has 7 senses:

1. (often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

2. a parcel of land having fixed boundaries

3. an unofficial association of people or groups

4. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

5. anything (straws or pebbles etc.) taken or chosen at random

6. any collection in its entirety

7. (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

  Familiarity information: LOT used as a noun is common.

• LOT (verb)
  The verb LOT has 2 senses:

1. divide into lots, as of land, for example

2. administer or bestow, as in small portions

  Familiarity information: LOT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

batch; deal; flock; good deal; great deal; hatful; heap; lot; mass; mess; mickle; mint; mountain; muckle; passel; peck; pile; plenty; pot; quite a little; raft; sight; slew; spate; stack; tidy sum; wad

Context example:

a wad of money

Hypernyms ("lot" is a kind of...):

large indefinite amount; large indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lot"):

deluge; flood; inundation; torrent (an overwhelming number or amount)

haymow (a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A parcel of land having fixed boundaries

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

he bought a lot on the lake

Hypernyms ("lot" is a kind of...):

parcel; parcel of land; piece of ground; piece of land; tract (an extended area of land)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lot"):

car park; park; parking area; parking lot (a lot where cars are parked)

building site; vacant lot (a lot on which there are no permanent buildings)

Derivation:

lot (divide into lots, as of land, for example)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An unofficial association of people or groups

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

band; circle; lot; set

Context example:

they were an angry lot

Hypernyms ("lot" is a kind of...):

social group (people sharing some social relation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lot"):

camp; clique; coterie; ingroup; inner circle; pack (an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose)

cohort (a band of warriors (originally a unit of a Roman Legion))

confederacy; conspiracy (a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose)

Four Hundred (the exclusive social set of a city)

horsey set; horsy set (a set of people sharing a devotion to horses and horseback riding and horse racing)

jet set (a set of rich and fashionable people who travel widely for pleasure)

company; party (a band of people associated temporarily in some activity)

car pool (a small group of car drivers who arrange to take turns driving while the others are passengers)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion

Context example:

success that was her portion

Hypernyms ("lot" is a kind of...):

condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lot"):

good fortune; good luck; luckiness (an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes)

providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)

bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)

failure (lack of success)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Anything (straws or pebbles etc.) taken or chosen at random

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

draw; lot

Context example:

they drew lots for it

Hypernyms ("lot" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Any collection in its entirety

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

bunch; caboodle; lot

Context example:

she bought the whole caboodle

Hypernyms ("lot" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Sense 7

Meaning:

(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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

Hebrew; Israelite; Jew (a person belonging to the worldwide group claiming descent from Jacob (or converted to it) and connected by cultural or religious ties)

Domain category:

Old Testament (the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible)

• LOT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Divide into lots, as of land, for example

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "lot" is one way to...):

carve up; dissever; divide; separate; split; split up (separate into parts or portions)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

lot (a parcel of land having fixed boundaries)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Administer or bestow, as in small portions

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

administer; allot; deal; deal out; dish out; dispense; distribute; dole out; lot; mete out; parcel out; shell out

Context example:

the machine dispenses soft drinks

Hypernyms (to "lot" is one way to...):

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lot"):

allot; assign; portion (give out)

reallot (allot again)

deal (distribute cards to the players in a game)

apply; give (give or convey physically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

 Context examples 

When you hear this news, you won’t have a lot of notice, so you will have to roll quickly.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of yours.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

A lot of the women tested during this study didn’t have any idea that they had high blood pressure, he said.

(First-time pregnancy complications linked to increased risk of hypertension later in life, National Institutes of Health)

“It’s a lot of time.”

(Zika virus found to harm adults’ memory and motor system, Agência Brasil/EBC)

However, developing this material for cooling applications will involve a lot of new design work.

(Electronic solid could reduce carbon emissions in fridges and air conditioners, University of Cambridge)

To complicate matters further, previous observations with ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, revealed a lot of dust and gas in these early galaxies that fuelled rapid star formation.

(ESO Observations Reveal Black Holes' Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn, ESO)

The map shows lots of blue and purple in this region, representing water ice less than one foot (30 centimeters) below the surface; warm colors are over two feet (60 centimeters) deep.

(NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars, NASA)

"Come on, now, let's get outa this. There's lots of other girls. Come on."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

My mate’s gone, and there’ll be a lot of promotion.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He has been shopping too, and has sent home such a wonderful lot of fur coats and wraps, and all sorts of warm things.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)