Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LEC'TUR-ER, n.

1. One who reads or pronounces lectures;
2. A preacher in a church, hired by the parish to assist the rector, vicar or curate. Johnson.

LEC'TURE-SHIP, n.

The office of u lecturer. Swift.

LEC'TUR-ING, ppr.

Reading or delivering a discourse; ro- proving.

LEC'TURN, n.

A reading desk. [Not in use.] Chaucer.

LED, pret.

and pp. of Lead.

LED-CAP'TAIN, n. [led and captain.]

An obsequious follower or attendant.

LED'EN, n. [Sax. lyden.]

Language; true meaning. [Obs.] Chaucer. Spenser.

LEDGE, n. [Sax. leger, a layer; D. kggen, to. lay, Sax. lecgan.]

1. A stratum, layer or row. The lowest ledge or row should be merely of stone.
2. A ridge; a prominent row; as, a ledge of rocks. Watlon.
3. A prominent part; a regular part rising or projecting beyond the rest. Swift
4. A small molding.
5. A small piece of timber placed athwart ships, under the deck between the beams.
6. A long ridge of rocks near the surface of the sea. Mar. Dict.

LEDG'ER, n.

The principal book of accounts among merchants; the book into which the accounts of the journul are carried in a summary form.

LED'HORSE, n.

A sumpter-horse.

LEE, a. plur.

Lees. [Fr. lie.] Dregs; sediment. [See Lees.]

LEE, n.

[Sw. l i; Dan. le- In Sax. hlro, Meow, is a bower or shelter; Scot. k, calm, shcltered; Ice. hle, D. lee, and laar, sheltered from the wind; lawen, to cease blowing; W. clyd, sheltering, warn; Sp. lea, lee. If the Welsh is the same word, it connects theso words with Lat. claido, dada, Literally, a calm or sheltered place, a place defended from the wind; hence, that part of the hemisphere toward which the wind blows, as opposed to that from which it proceeds. Under the Ice, denotes properly, in the part defended from the wind. Under the lee of the land, is properly, near the shore which breaks the force of the wind. Under the lee of a ship, on the side opposite to that on which the wind blows.

LEE, v.i.

To lie. [Not used. See Lie.] Chaucer.

LEE'-BOARD, n.

A frame of plank affixed to the side of a flat-bottomed vessel, to prevent it from fulling to leeward when close-hauled.

LEECH, n. [Goth. leikeis, Sax. lac, a host or innkeeper, a physician; Dan. laege; lager, to heal Sw. lakia, to heal; lakiare, a physician; Ir. liagh; Russ. liakar.]

1. A physician; a professor of the art of healing. Spenser. Dryden. Gay. [This word, in the United States, is nearly or wholly obsolete. Even cow leech is not used.]
2. [Sax. leccan, to seize.] A blood-sucker; an animal of the genus Hirudo a species of aquatic worm, which is used in the medical art for topical bleeding. One large species of this animal is called horse-leech.
3. In seamen's language, the border or edge of a sail, which is sloping or perpendicular; as, the fore-leech, the after-leech, &c.

LEECH'-CRAFT, n.

The art of healing. [Obs.] Davies.

LEECH'-LINE, n.

Leech-lines are ropes fastened to the middle of the leeches of the main-sail and fore-sail, serving to truss them up to the yards.

LEECH'-ROPE, n.

That part of the bolt-rope to which the skirt or border of a sail is sewed. Mar. Dict.

LEEF, a.

Kind; fond; pleasing; willing. [Obs. See Spenser.

LEE'-GAGE, n.

A greater distance from the point whence the wind blows, than another vessel has.

LEEK, n. [Sax. leac; G. lauch; D. look; Sw. lok; Dan. log.]

A plant of the genus Allium, with a bulbous root. Numb. xi.

LEE'LITE, n.

A mineral, so called from Dr. Lee, of St. John's College, Cambridge. It is described as a silicious stone, and by some mineralogists considered to be a hydrate of silica.

LEE'-LURCH, n.

A sudden and violent roll of a ship to leeward in a high sea.

LEER, a. [Sax. gelar.]

Empty; also, trilling; frivolous. [Obs.] B. Jonson

LEER, n. [Sax. hleare, hleor, the cheek.]

1. The cheek. [Obs.]
2. Complexion; hue; face. [Obs.] Shak.
3. An oblique view. With jealous leer malign Eyed them askance. Milton.
4. An affected cast of countenance. Damn with faint praise, concede with civil leer. Pope.