Saint Lawrence n 1: Roman martyr; supposedly Lawrence was ordered by the police to give up the Church's treasure and when he responded by presenting the poor people of Rome he was roasted to death on a gridiron (died in 258) [syn: {Lawrence}, {St. Lawrence}, {Laurentius}] 2: a North American river; flows into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the North Atlantic [syn: {Saint Lawrence River}, {St. Lawrence}, {St. Lawrence River}]