lefull

English

Etymology

From Middle English lefull (“permissible, allowable”), from lēve (“permission, privilege”), equivalent to leave +‎ -ful.

Adjective

lefull (comparative more lefull, superlative most lefull)

1. (archaic) permissible, permitted; allowable, allowed
   • c1500, Thomas Betson, A Ryght Profytable Treatyse Compendiously Drawen Out Of Many and Dyvers Wrytynges Of Holy Men‎^[1], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2005 from 1905 reprint:

     That thynge is not lefull to be seen / yt is not lefull to be desyred.

   • 1563, Richard Rainolde, A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike‎^[2], HTML edition, published 2008:

     :Quid saluum esse poterit si licet furari, what can be safe, if thefte bee lefull or tolerated.

   • 1902, William F. Dawson, Christmas: Its Origin and Associations‎^[3], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2007, page 92:

     Another book well known to bibliomaniacs ("Dives and Pauper," ed. W. de Worde; 1496) says: "For to represente in playnge at Crystmasse herodes and the thre kynges and other processes of the gospelles both then and at Ester and other tymes also it is lefull and cōmendable."