lashing
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/3
All five words describe a large quantity, but only 'lashings' carries a specifically British and food-centred flavour. 'Lashings of' almost always pairs with pourable or spreadable foods — cream, gravy, jam, butter — and conjures a generous, indulgent helping. 'Loads' and 'tons' are informal hyperbole that work with any noun: loads of friends, tons of homework. 'Heaps' suggests a pile, so it suits solid food or work but feels odd with liquids. 'Plenty' is neutral and the most formal of the set, useful in writing where the others would feel too casual. A British grandmother might offer her grandchild lashings of custard; an American friend would say loads of ice cream; in a business email you would write plenty of time, never lashings of time.
Common collocations
Nouns
- public lashing
- rope lashing
Phrases
- receive a lashing
- lashings of cream
- lashing rain
Prepositions
- lashings of (something)
Etymology
All senses come from the verb 'lash', which entered Middle English around the 14th century and meant first 'to strike a sudden blow', then later 'to bind tightly'. The whipping sense and the rope sense developed straight from these two uses of the verb. The British food sense ('lashings of') started as 19th-century slang — a 'lashing' of something was a sudden outpouring, the way water lashes down — and was popularised in 20th-century children's books, especially those by Enid Blyton.