Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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LAX, adj., n.¹, v. Also, in sense II. 1., by metathesis, lask. Sc. usages:

I. adj. As in Eng., not strict. Comb. †lax-man, one of the Moderate or less rigid party in the Church of Scotland during the disputes of the early 18th c.Sc. 1730 J. Glas Remarks on Memo. Synod of Angus 81:
When I have beheld the several Parties, and their different Ways that have gone under these Designations, Jurants and Nonjurants, Simsonians and Anti-Simsonians, Legalists and Antinomians, Rationalists and Enthusiasts, Strict-men and Lax-men.

II. n. 1. Looseness of the bowels, esp. in cattle, diarrhoea, scour.Ags. 1803 Trans. Highl. Soc. II. 208:
The Lask or Scour, is likewise a distemper seldom cured. It generally originates from feebleness, cold, or grazing on a soft rich pasture, without a mixture of hard grass.

†2. Fig. Of emotion: relief, release.Sc. a.1800 Bonny Baby Livingston in Child Ballads No. 222 A. xviii.:
O wherefore should I tell my grief, Since lax I canna find?

†III. v. To release, relax, loosen. Obs. in Eng. since early 18th c.Edb. 1821 W. Liddle Poems 31:
By that time your chords lax'd sair Frae hard fatigue.Kcb. 1848 J. Hughan Poems 20:
Their young girsley limbs had near laxed their bearance.