"La*ver Rod (1938- ), Australian tennis player; full name Rodney George Laver. In 1962, he won the four major singles championships (British, American, French, and Australian) in one year, called the "Grand Slam," a feat he repeated in 1969. la*ver 1 (also purple laver) n. an edible seaweed with thin sheetlike fronds of a reddish-purple and green color that becomes black when dry. Laver typically grows on exposed shores, but in Japan it is cultivated in estuaries. Porphyra umbilicaulis, division Rhodophyta. late Old English (as the name of a water plant mentioned by Pliny), from Latin. The current sense dates from"