Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LEAD, n.²

Precedence; a going before; guidance. Let the, general take the tear. [A colloquial word not reputable.]

LEAD, v.i.

1. To go before and show the way. I will lead on softly. Gen. xxxiii.
2. To conduct, as a chief or commander. Let the troops follow, where their general leads.
3. To draw; to have a tendency to. Gaming leads to other vices.
4. To exercise dominion. – Spenser. To lead off or out, to go first; to begin. – Cumberland.

LEAD, v.t.¹ [pron. led.]

To cover with lead; to fit with lead.

LEAD, v.t.² [pron. leed; pret. and pp. led; Sax. lædan; G. leiten; D. leiden; Sw. leda; Dan. leder; probably to draw, to strain or extend.]

1. To guide by the hand; as, to lead a child. It often includes the sense of drawing as well as of directing.
2. To guide or conduct by showing the way; to direct; as the Israelites were led by a pillar of cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night.
3. To conduct to any place. He leadeth me beside the still waters. – Ps. xxiii.
4. To conduct, as a chief or commander, implying authority to direct and govern; as, a general leads his troops to battle and to victory. Christ took not on him flesh and blood, that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies, &c. – South.
5. To precede; to introduce by going first. As Hesperus that leads the sun his way. – Fairfax.
6. To guide; to show the method of attaining an object. Self-examination may lead us to a knowledge of ourselves.
7. To draw; to entice; to allure. The love of pleasure leads men into vices which degrade and impoverish them.
8. To induce; to prevail on; to influence. He was driven by the necessities of the times more than led by his own disposition to any rigor of actions. – K. Charles.
9. To pass; to spend, that is, to draw out; as, to lead a life of gayety, or a solitary life. That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. – 1. Tim. To lead astray, lo guide in wrong way or into error; to seduce from truth or rectitude. To lead captive, to carry into captivity.

LEAD, v.t.³ [led.]

To separate lines in printing by a thin plate of lead.

LEAD'ED, a. [leded.]

Separated by thin plates of lead, as lines in printing.

LEAD'EN, a. [led'n; from lead.]

1. Made of lead; as, a leaden ball.
2. Heavy; indisposed to action. – Shak.
3. Heavy; dull. – Shak.

LEAD-EN-HEART'ED, a.

Stupid; destitute of feeling. – Thomson.

LEAD-EN-HEEL'ED, a.

Moving slowly. – Ford.

LEAD-EN-STEP'PING, a.

Moving slowly. – Milton.

LEAD'ER, n.

1. One that leads or conducts; a guide; a conductor.
2. A chief; a commander; a captain.
3. One who goes first.
4. The chief of a party or faction; as, the leader of the whigs or of the tories; a leader of the Jacobins.
5. A performer who leads a band or choir in music.

LEAD'ING, n.

Guidance; the act of conducting; direction. – Shak. Spenser.

LEAD'ING, ppr.

1. Guiding; conducting; preceding; drawing; alluring; passing life.
2. adj. Chief; principal; capital; most influential; as, a leading motive; a leading man in a party.
3. Showing the way by going fast. He left his mother a countess by patent, which was a new leading example. – Wotton.

LEAD'ING-LY, adv.

By leading.

LEAD'ING-STRINGS, n.

Strings by which children are supported when beginning to walk. – Dryden. To be in leading-strings, to be in a state of infancy or dependence, or in pupilage under the guidance of others.

LEAD'MAN, n.

One who begins or leads a dance. [Obs.] – B. Jonson.

LEAD'-SHOT, n.

Shot made of lead.

LEAD'WORT, n. [led'wort.]

The popular English name of some species of Plumbago, a genus of plants.

LEAD-Y, a. [led'dy.]

Of the color of lead.

LEAF, n. [plur. Leaves; Sax. leafe; D. loof; G. laub; Sw. lof; Dan. löv; Goth. lauf.]

1. In botany, leaves are organs which usually shoot from the sides of the stems and branches, but sometimes from the root; sometimes they are sessile; more generally supported by petioles. They are of various forms, flat, extended, linear, cylindric, &c.
2. A part of a book containing two pages.
3. The side of a double door. 1 Kings vi.
4. Something resembling a leaf in thinness and extension; very thin plate; as, gold leaf.
5. The movable side of a table.

LEAF, v.i.

To shoot out leaves; to produce leaves. The trees leaf in May.

LEAF'AGE, n.

Abundance of leaves.

LEAF'-BUD, n.

A young plant produced without the agency of the stamens and pistils, and inclosed in rudimentary leaves, called scales. – Lindley.

LEAF'-CROWN-ED, a.

Crowned with leaves or foliage. – Moon.

LEAF'ED, a.

Having leaves.