leash
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /liːʃ/
rhymes: -iːʃ
homophone: Laois
Forms: form: leashes
Etymology: From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), either from Latin laxa, feminine form of laxus (“loose”) or, more probably, from a deverbal of Old French lesser, laissier, from Latin laxāre (“loose”); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.
Senses: examples: text: A stout woman upholstered in velvet, her flabby cheeks too much massaged, swirled by with her poodle straining at its leash
ref: 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned:
text: like a fawning greyhound in the leash
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi]:
synonyms: lead
glosses: A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.
glosses: A brace and a half; a tierce.
glosses: A set of three animals (especially greyhounds, foxes, bucks, and hares;)
examples: text: Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as, Tom, Dick, and Francis.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: [I] kept my chamber a leash of days.
ref: 1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: It had an odd promiscuous tone, / As if h' had talk'd three parts in one; / Which made some think, when he did gabble, / Th' had heard three labourers of Babel; / Or Cerberus himself pronounce / A leash of languages at once.
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
text: An I could climb and lay my hand upon it, / Then were I wealthier than a leash of kings.
ref: 1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Gareth and Lynette”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; V), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 39:
glosses: A group of three.
glosses: A string with a loop at the end for lifting warp threads, in a loom.
examples: text: Probably the idea was around before that, but the first photo of the leash in action was published that year
ref: 1980 February, Drew Kampion, “As Years Roll By (1970's Retrospective”, in Surfing, page 43:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
surfing
glosses: A leg rope.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonology
prosody
sciences
glosses: A kind of metrical construct in Skeltonics.
Derived terms: in leash
leashless
leashlike
off-leash
on a tight leash
on-leash
short leash
strain at the leash
traffic leash
urinary leash