lot

Less common meanings

4. 4
   auction itemnouncountable

   An item or group of items treated as one unit for sale, especially at auction, or a batch of goods made together.

   The auctioneer opened bidding on the next lot, a set of antique chairs.

   Several lots of rare coins drew international buyers.

   Similarbatch, set, item

5. 5
   group (people)nouncolloquialcountable

   A group of people considered together as a single set.

   I don't trust that lot at all.

   Our new neighbors are a friendly lot who wave whenever we walk past.

   UsageCommon in that lot, you lot, and with a judgment: a friendly lot, a bad lot.

   Similargroup, crowd, gang

   Note

   Applied to people, the word usually comes with a verdict attached: a sorry lot, a bad lot. Crowd, gang and group are near synonyms, but none of them sizes people up together in quite the same way.

6. 6
   everythingnoundefinite

   The whole of a set or group, with every member included; everything.

   They cleared out the warehouse and shipped the lot overseas.

   When the bill came, he paid for the lot.

   UsageUse the lot, the whole lot, or the lot of them. A lot means much or many; the lot means all.

   Similareverything, all

   Oppositenothing

   Note

   The article does the work, turning the "great deal" sense into a word for totality. A lot is many; the lot is all. The lot of them sweeps up every member of a group in one phrase.

7. 7
   casting tokennouncountable

   An object such as a slip of paper or a die used to decide something by chance; also, deciding or sharing things in this way.

   The first lot drawn from the urn bore her name.

   The crew drew lots to decide who would stand guard that night.

   UsageMostly draw lots or cast lots.

   Note

   The physical token behind the whole family of chance meanings, and it lives with two verbs: you cast lots or draw lots. The King James Bible of 1611 has the lot cast into the lap, with the outcome left to the Lord. Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra has "If we draw lots, he speeds." Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikisource.org
   • Proverbs 16:33 in the King James Bible describes casting a lot into the lap and attributes its disposition to the Lord. en.wikisource.org
   • William Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra. folger.edu
   • The quoted words occur in Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, scene 3, spoken by Antony. folger.edu
8. 8
   nounarchaicuncountable

   Whatever comes to pass by chance, without human design or planning.

   But save my life, which lot before your foot doth lay.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

   Similarfate, chance, fortune, destiny, accident

   Oppositedesign

   Note

   Chance in the abstract, used with no article at all: not a lot or the lot, just lot, close to fortune or fate. Book VI of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596) uses it this way. Keep it apart from one's personal portion, which is chance already handed out to someone. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Lot can mean abstract chance or fate and occur without an article. en.wikisource.org
   • Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene contains this use. en.wikisource.org
   • The poem's first three books appeared in 1590. This particular example occurs in Book VI, canto I, stanza 39, first published in 1596; specify Book VI to make the date accurate. en.wikisource.org
   • A distinct sense denotes the portion or fate allotted to an individual. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   lottery prizenounarchaiccountable

   A prize awarded to a winner in a lottery.

   Similarprize

   Note

   The prize itself, not the ticket that wins it. John Evelyn's diary for November 1693 records a Navy commissioner taking the greatest lot, £3000, while Evelyn's own coachman won £40. Today the plain synonym prize is the safe choice. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Lot can denote the lottery prize itself. en.wiktionary.org
   • The entry is dated 14 November 1693. gutenberg.org
   • Evelyn records a Navy commissioner winning the greatest lot, £3000, and his own coachman winning £40. gutenberg.org
10. 10
    share outverbdatedtransitive

    To allot, sort, or apportion something into shares.

    Sometimes the contractor would lot the work out to some sub-contractor, and he, after the men had worked for a month, would run away, and we should never see the colour of his money.

    1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor

    Similarapportion, allocate, divide, distribute, share

    Note

    A dated verb, clearest when paired with out: Henry Mayhew, in London Labour and the London Poor, describes a contractor who would lot the work out to a sub-contractor, handing pieces of a job to others. In current English, allot or parcel out sounds more natural. Its forms double the t (lotted, lotting), and it should not be confused with the verb of reckoning, which takes on or upon. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor contains the described example of subcontracting work. The words occur in a railway labourer's account recorded by Mayhew. gutenberg.org
    • The inflected forms are lotted and lotting. en.wiktionary.org
    • A separate sense means count or reckon on or upon something. en.wiktionary.org
11. 11
    count onverbdatedUSintransitive

    To count or reckon on something; to rely upon it.

    Similarrely, count, depend, bank, reckon

    Note

    An American colloquialism, now dated, that always takes on or upon: you lot on a thing the way you count or reckon on it. It suits quoted speech or period dialogue. In ordinary prose, count on or rely on is the safer choice. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The reckoning sense is labelled American and informal. en.wiktionary.org
    • Lot on something means count or reckon on it. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    noun

    A historical unit of weight used across Europe from the Middle Ages, often set at one-thirtieth or one-thirty-second of a local pound.