lestとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• IPA: /lɛst/
  • 韻: -ɛst
• (obsolete) IPA: /liːst/
• (Early Modern) IPA: /lɛst/, /lɛːst/

接続詞

lest (formal, literary)

1. For fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case.

   Synonym: (informal) before

   He won't go outside, lest he be eaten by those ravenous eagles.

   I brought my notes lest faulty memory lead me astray.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 15, column 2:

     I thought to haue told thee of it, but I fear'd / Leaſt I might anger thee.

   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 565:

     And then Robert Loo came out swiftly with the half-filled jar lest more be said.

   • 1967, “I Am a Lonesome Hobo”, in Bob Dylan (music), John Wesley Harding‎:

     Stay free from petty jealousies / Live by no man's code / And hold your judgment for yourself / Lest you wind up on this road

   • 2013 July 27, “Lunacy?”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8846:

     Lest any astrologer reading this result get cocky, Dr Cajochen does not believe that what he has found is directly influenced by the Moon through, say, some tidal effect. What he thinks he has discovered is an additional hand on the body’s clock-face.

2. (after certain expressions denoting fear or apprehension) that (without the negative particle; introduces the reason for an emotion.)

   There was danger/alarm lest the plan become known.

   I am afraid lest I revealed too much.

   • 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Lady Milborough as Ambassador”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 81:

     That you and I should be in the same house together and not able to speak to each other is in itself a misery, but this is terribly enhanced by the dread lest this state of things should be made to continue.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     [M]y ward, or rather my adopted son Leo Vincey and myself have recently passed through a real African adventure, of a nature so much more marvellous than the one which you describe, that to tell the truth I am almost ashamed to submit it to you lest you should disbelieve my tale.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

使用する際の注意点

• This word has become archaic for many English speakers.
• lest is usually followed by a verb in the subjunctive mood in either the present or future tense.

For example:

Lest they be captured, the soldiers fled from the battlefield.

Let him attend the ceremony which commemorates the achievements of his ancestors, lest he forget.

In the future tense, when it is differentiated from the present, it is usually combined with should:

Let us get to the station early, lest we should miss our connection.

参考

参照

アナグラム

• SELT, let's, TESL, LETS, ELTs, TLEs, LTEs, lets, tels, elts