lead
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: media
medicine
nautical
printing
publishing
sciences
transport
typography
Etymology: From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”).
Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow.
* (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.
Inflected forms:
form: leads
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: ♄
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: leads
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: leading
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: leaded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: leaded
pos: verb
tags: past
form: ♄
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: lede
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: leed
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82, symbol Pb (from Latin plumbum).
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or to estimate velocity in knots.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Vertical space in advance of a row or between rows of text. Also known as leading.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: This copy has too much lead; I prefer less space between the lines.
gloss: Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top.
These rooms were on a level with the apartments of our friends Bows and Costigan next door at No. 4; and by reaching over the communicating leads, Grady could command the mignonette-box which bloomed in Bows’s window.
gloss: A thin cylinder of graphite used in pencils.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: Bullets; ammunition.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
examples: They pumped him full of lead.
All my life I want money and power
Respect my mind or die from lead shower
gloss: X-ray protective clothing lined with lead.
pos: noun
tags: countable
in-plural
uncountable
examples: You must remember to wear your leads.
gloss: To cover, fill, or affect with lead.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle.
gloss: To place leads between the lines of.
pos: verb
tags: historical
transitive
examples: to lead a page
leaded matter
gloss: Foremost.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: The contestants are all tied; no one has the lead position.
For the first time ever, the senior architect and lead developer for a key enterprise system on NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission shares the secrets to one of the most difficult technology tasks […]
gloss: Main, principal, primary, first, chief, foremost.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: the lead guitarist in band
the lead developer on a software project
Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's ex-prime minister, has missed a verdict in a negligence trial that could have seen her jailed, prompting the Supreme Court to say it will issue an arrest warrant fearing she is a flight risk, according to the lead judge in the case.
Derived words: forecast lead time
lead character
lead climber
lead dog
lead fiddle
lead guitar
lead-lag
lead name
lead plane
lead sheet
lead singer
lead single
lead tenant
lead vocalist
lead vocals
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: lyijylevy
lang: Greek
word: μολυβδοταινία
roman: molyvdotainía
lang: Hungarian
word: ólomlemez
lang: Italian
word: lamiera