Lead
[liːd] or [lid]
Definition
(noun.) the playing of a card to start a trick in bridge; 'the lead was in the dummy'.
(noun.) a position of leadership (especially in the phrase `take the lead'); 'he takes the lead in any group'; 'we were just waiting for someone to take the lead'; 'they didn't follow our lead'.
(noun.) mixture of graphite with clay in different degrees of hardness; the marking substance in a pencil.
(noun.) thin strip of metal used to separate lines of type in printing.
(noun.) an advantage held by a competitor in a race; 'he took the lead at the last turn'.
(noun.) evidence pointing to a possible solution; 'the police are following a promising lead'; 'the trail led straight to the perpetrator'.
(noun.) the introductory section of a story; 'it was an amusing lead-in to a very serious matter'.
(noun.) a news story of major importance.
(noun.) (baseball) the position taken by a base runner preparing to advance to the next base; 'he took a long lead off first'.
(noun.) (sports) the score by which a team or individual is winning.
(noun.) the angle between the direction a gun is aimed and the position of a moving target (correcting for the flight time of the missile).
(noun.) a soft heavy toxic malleable metallic element; bluish white when freshly cut but tarnishes readily to dull grey; 'the children were playing with lead soldiers'.
(verb.) cause to undertake a certain action; 'Her greed led her to forge the checks'.
(verb.) travel in front of; go in advance of others; 'The procession was headed by John'.
(verb.) take somebody somewhere; 'We lead him to our chief'; 'can you take me to the main entrance?'; 'He conducted us to the palace'.
(verb.) be ahead of others; be the first; 'she topped her class every year'.
(verb.) tend to or result in; 'This remark lead to further arguments among the guests'.
Typed by Lesley--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished. It is both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets, etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic weight, 206.4. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide.
(n.) An article made of lead or an alloy of lead
(n.) A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea.
(n.) A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
(n.) Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs; hence, pl., a roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
(n.) A small cylinder of black lead or plumbago, used in pencils.
(v. t.) To cover, fill, or affect with lead; as, continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle.
(v. t.) To place leads between the lines of; as, to lead a page; leaded matter.
(v. t.) To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection; as, a father leads a child; a jockey leads a horse with a halter; a dog leads a blind man.
(v. t.) To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, esp. by going with or going in advance of. Hence, figuratively: To direct; to counsel; to instruct; as, to lead a traveler; to lead a pupil.
(v. t.) To conduct or direct with authority; to have direction or charge of; as, to lead an army, an exploring party, or a search; to lead a political party.
(v. t.) To go or to be in advance of; to precede; hence, to be foremost or chief among; as, the big sloop led the fleet of yachts; the Guards led the attack; Demosthenes leads the orators of all ages.
(v. t.) To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure; as, to lead one to espouse a righteous cause.
(v. t.) To guide or conduct one's self in, through, or along (a certain course); hence, to proceed in the way of; to follow the path or course of; to pass; to spend. Also, to cause (one) to proceed or follow in (a certain course).
(v. t.) To begin a game, round, or trick, with; as, to lead trumps; the double five was led.
(v. i.) To guide or conduct, as by accompanying, going before, showing, influencing, directing with authority, etc.; to have precedence or preeminence; to be first or chief; -- used in most of the senses of lead, v. t.
(v. t.) To tend or reach in a certain direction, or to a certain place; as, the path leads to the mill; gambling leads to other vices.
(n.) The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction; as, to take the lead; to be under the lead of another.
(n.) precedence; advance position; also, the measure of precedence; as, the white horse had the lead; a lead of a boat's length, or of half a second.
(n.) The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played; as, your partner has the lead.
(n.) An open way in an ice field.
(n.) A lode.
(n.) The course of a rope from end to end.
(n.) The width of port opening which is uncovered by the valve, for the admission or release of steam, at the instant when the piston is at end of its stroke.
(n.) the distance of haul, as from a cutting to an embankment.
(n.) The action of a tooth, as a tooth of a wheel, in impelling another tooth or a pallet.
Editor: Pratt
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Guide (by the hand, or something connected with the hand).[2]. Conduct, direct, escort, go before as guide.[3]. Head, be at the head of.[4]. Allure, entice, induce, persuade, draw, prevail on.[5]. Pass, spend.
v. n. [1]. Show the way (by going before).[2]. Be the commander (as of troops).[3]. Conduce, contribute, tend, serve.
n. [1]. Guidance, direction, leadership.[2]. Precedence.
Checker: Olivier
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Conduct, guide, precede, induce, spend, pass, commence, inaugurate, convoy,persuade, direct, influence
ANT:Misconduct, mislead, follow, dissuade, abandon, leave, misguide
SYN:Priority, pre-eminence, initiative, guidance, control
ANT:Subordination, inferiority, submission
Edited by Ian
Definition
n. a well-known metal of a bluish-white colour: the plummet for sounding at sea: a thin plate of lead separating lines of type: (pl.) sheets of lead for covering roofs a flat roof so covered.—v.t. to cover or fit with lead: (print.) to separate lines with leads.—n. Lead′-arm′ing tallow &c. placed in the hollow of a sounding-lead to ascertain the nature of the bottom.—adjs. Lead′ed fitted with or set in lead: (print.) separated by leads as the lines of a book &c.; Lead′en made of lead: heavy: dull; Lead′en-heart′ed having an unfeeling heart; Lead′en-step′ping (Milt.) moving slowly.—ns. Lead′-glance lead ore galena; Lead′-mill a mill for grinding white-lead: a leaden disc charged with emery for grinding gems; Lead′-pen′cil a pencil or instrument for drawing &c. made of blacklead; Lead′-poi′soning or Plumbism poisoning by the absorption and diffusion of lead in the system its commonest form Lead or Painter's Colic; Leads′man a seaman who heaves the lead.—adj. Lead′y like lead.
v.t. to show the way by going first: to guide by the hand: to direct: to precede: to transport or carry: to allure.—v.i. to go before and show the way: to have a tendency: to exercise dominion:—pr.p. lead′ing; pa.t. and pa.p. led.—n. first place: precedence: direction: (naut.) the course of a running rope from end to end: the right of playing the first card in a round or trick: a main conductor in electrical distribution.—ns. Lead′er one who leads or goes first: a chief: the leading editorial article in a newspaper (also Leading article): principal wheel in any machinery; Leaderette′ a brief newspaper leader; Lead′ership state or condition of a leader or conductor; Lead′ing-bus′iness the acting of the principal parts or r鬺es in plays; Lead′ing-mō′tive (Ger. leit-motif) in dramatic music a principal theme: a theme usually of but few tones by which any personage or particular emotion is indicated by suggestion as often as it occurs; Lead′ing-ques′tion a legal term for a question so put to a witness as to suggest the answer that is wished or expected.—n.pl. Lead′ing-strings strings used to lead children when beginning to walk: vexatious care or custody.—Lead apes in hell (see Ape); Lead astray to draw into a wrong course to seduce from right conduct; Lead by the nose to make one follow submissively; Lead in prayer to offer up prayer in an assembly uniting the prayers of others; Lead off to begin or take the start in anything; Lead on to persuade to go on to draw on; Lead one a dance (see Dance); Lead up to to bring about by degrees to prepare for anything by steps or stages.
Checker: Marie
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of lead, foretells poor success in any engagement. A lead mine, indicates that your friends will look with suspicion on your money making. Your sweetheart will surprise you with her deceit and ill temper. To dream of lead ore, foretells distress and accidents. Business will assume a gloomy cast. To hunt for lead, denotes discontentment, and a constant changing of employment. To melt lead, foretells that by impatience you will bring failure upon yourself and others.
To dream of white lead, denotes relatives or children are in danger because of your carelessness. Prosperity will be chary of favor.
Typist: Terrence
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. A heavy blue-gray metal much used in giving stability to light lovers—particularly to those who love not wisely but other men's wives. Lead is also of great service as a counterpoise to an argument of such weight that it turns the scale of debate the wrong way. An interesting fact in the chemistry of international controversy is that at the point of contact of two patriotisms lead is precipitated in great quantities.
Checker: Rene
Examples
- You can't deprive me of the lead. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- What do you know of me that should lead you to suspect--Oh! Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- She suffered Mr. Franklin to lead her back into the room. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Look at those big, isolated clumps of building rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-colored sea. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- I shall not press the point for it would lead us far afield. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The military Colossus then tumbled, and the Press began to lead mankind. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Now lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black business. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- We were then led up to the door, where we were directed to get down on our hands and knees with our backs toward the room we were to enter. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- Being delivered into the charge of the ma?tresse, I was led through a long narrow passage into a foreign kitchen, very clean but very strange. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Where Judy Trenor led, all the world would follow; and Lily had the doomed sense of the castaway who has signalled in vain to fleeing sails. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- One is the bicycle with the Palmer tire, and we see what that has led to. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- He could see a trail through the grass where horses had been led to the stream to drink and there was the fresh manure of several horses. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Ezra Jennings stopped at the road which led to the village. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- There was but a single way, and that led through the mighty, towering trees upon our right. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- The leading idea was different from customary muckraking. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The wiser course to take was to dismiss the idea of the opium from his mind, by leading him insensibly to think of something else. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- All others belonging to him have gone to the Power and the Glory, and I have a mind that they're drawing him to them--leading him away. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- That generalization was a presupposition of the calculations leading to the discovery. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- But worst of all, the door leading to the pits where I had hidden my Princess was ajar. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- He also visited Rome, where he was received with the greatest good-will by Pope Paul V and his cardinals, and where he met the leading scientists of the capital. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- It embodied, as leading features, the steam blast and the multitubular boiler, which latter was six feet long and had twenty-five three-inch tubes. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- I have something beyond this, but I will call it a defect, not an endowment, if it leads me to misery, while ye are happy. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- This growth and dying and reproduction of living things leads to some very wonderful consequences. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The subject of gymnastic leads Plato to the sister subject of medicine, which he further illustrates by the parallel of law. Plato. The Republic.
- You must therefore allow me to follow the dictates of my conscience on this occasion, which leads me to perform what I look on as a point of duty. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- If one leads you wrong, I am sure the other tells you of it. Jane Austen. Emma.
- An undue love of Self leads to the most monstrous crimes and occasions the greatest misfortunes both in States and Families. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- This leads us to consider the fifth source of authority, viz. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
Checked by Judith