in navigation, the state of motion which increases the distance from the coast, so as to make it appear lower and smaller, a circumstance which evidently arises from the intervening convexity of the surface of the sea. It is used in contradiction to raising the land, which is produced by the opposite motion of approach towards it. See Land.

LAZAR-HOUSE, or LAZARETTO, a public building, in the nature of an hospital, to receive the poor, and those afflicted with contagious distempers. In some places, lazarettos are appointed for the performance of quarantine; in which case, those are obliged to be confined in them who are suspected to have come from places infected with the plague.