Forms: 4–6 lede, (4 ledde), 5–6 Sc. leid, 6 leade, 7– lead. [f. LEAD v.1; cf. OHG. leitî (MHG., mod.G. leite).
By Johnson, who gives one example from Herring (quot. 1745 in sense 2), it is stigmatized as ‘a low, despicable word’; Todd quotes an instance of it from Burke, and says it is used somewhere by Bolingbroke.]
† 1. The action of the vb. LEAD1; leading, direction, guidance. To take to lead: to take under one’s direction or guidance. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1570. Þai left þe lede of þar lau. Ibid., 12029. Þan tok ioseph iesus to ledde.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10653. Hom lacked the lede of þe lorde Ector.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IX. 1532. Decest scho was, God tuk hir spreit to leid.
c. 1510. Gest Robyn Hode, VII. 368, in Child, Ballads (1888), III. 74/1. Take fyue of the best knyghtes That be in your lede.
† b. Gentleman, man of lead; one who has a recognized leading position. Obs.
1793. Ld. Westmorland, in Lecky, Eng. in 18th C. (1887), VI. 558. The men of talent and lead in his Majesty’s service.
1842. Webster, Wks. (1877), II. 130. More than thirty Whigs, many of them gentlemen of lead and influence.
c. Direction given by going in front; example, precedent; esp. in phr. to follow the lead of.
1863. Bright, Sp. Amer., 30 June. To accept the lead of the Emperor of the French on … one of the greatest questions.
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 405. The king had set an example … and the subject was only too ready to follow the royal lead.
1875. T. W. Higginson, Hist. U. S., xxiv. 240. Under the lead of Josiah Quincy … a law was passed forbidding the importation of slaves.
1884. Lady Verney, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 546. Is the American model a success—a lead which it is desirable to follow out?
1899. Cheyne, Chr. Use of Psalms, iii. 56. The early Christians, in interpreting the Old Testament, followed the lead of the Jews, and the Jews have never regarded the 19th Psalm as Messianic.
d. spec. in Hunting, etc., chiefly in phr. to give a lead, i.e., to go first in leaping a fence or the like, so as to encourage the rest; in quots. transf.
1859. G. A. Lawrence, Sword & Gown, v. 52. Two Sundays ago, for instance, a Mr. Rolleston and his wife volunteered to give us a lead…. He went off at score, and made the pace so strong, that he cut them all down in the first two verses.
1862. A. Trollope, Orley Farm, I. xxxviii. 296. I lost the run, and had to see Harriet Tristram go away with the best lead any one has had to a fast thing this year.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 535. ‘What thing?’ said I, not wishing to give him the lead.
e. A guiding indication.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. I. 141. As I have a small brook passing through the farm … these carriages take their lead from the stream in due succession.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 13 (1864), 202. For the up and down direction we have a very impressive lead; this being the direction of gravity.
2. The front or leading place; the place in front of (something); freq. in phr. to take the (or a) lead. Also, the position or function of leading (e.g., a party, a deliberative body), leadership.
1570. Satir. Poems Reform., xii. 40. His Grandschir slane at Lythquo gif I leid.
1745. Abp. Herring, Sp. at York, 24 Sept., in Lond. Mag., 489/2. This County, as it exceeds every other for its Extent and Riches, so it very naturally takes the Lead of the inferior ones.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxvii. 127. He took the lead in every jovial conversation.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), 72. (Rose) They take the lead, and lose it … by turns.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 137. To prevent those who compose it from having the open and avowed lead in that house.
1817. Cobbett, Taking Leave, 13. Unless they [the country gentlemen] shall cordially take the lead amongst those working classes.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 5. For a mile or more the doctor took the lead and kept it.
1840. Alison, Hist. Europe, VIII. xlix. § 18. 20. Boldly assuming the lead in diplomacy.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxiv. (1861), V. 169. The lead of the House of Commons had, however, entirely passed away from Montague.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 187. Each of our porters took the lead in turn.
1879. M. Arnold, Equality, Mixed Ess. 66. On certain lines, certain nations find their strength and take a lead.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 26 Sept., 4/1. Germany has … taken the lead of other nations [in the preparation of colours from coal tar].
b. The body moving in front; the van. U.S.
1880. Tourgee, Fool’s Err., xxxiii. 217. The lawyers were of course in the lead. Ibid., xxxviii. 281. Then we started on. I rode beside Mr. Watson in the lead.
3. concr. Something that leads.
a. An artificial watercourse, esp. one leading to a mill. Also MILL-LEAD. Cf. LEAT.
1541. Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 9. Item, to Roger Meysy for cuttynge downe of ellorns in the ledes … ijd.
1870. R. Chambers, Pop. Rhymes Scot., 17. They took … a loup in the lead, and a dip in the dam.
b. A channel in an ice-field. Cf. LANE sb. 2.
1835. Sir J. Ross, Narr. 2nd Voy., Explan. Terms 15. A lead, a channel in a direct line through the sea.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xi. (1856), 78. Something like ‘a lead’ a little to leeward.
1881. A. Leslie, trans. Nordenskiöld’s Voy. Vega, I. x. 519. Johnsen supposed that in a couple of hours the whole lead would be completely closed.
c. A path; a garden path; an alley. Blind lead = blind alley (see BLIND a. 11).
1590. Acts Privy Council (1899), XIX. 409. Permytt them to enjoye the libertie of the gardens and the orchards and the leades to walke in.
1885. C. F. Holder, Marvels Anim. Life, 51–2. Innumerable avenues and blind leads are built to mislead the various carnivorous beetles that are ever on the lookout for such luxuries as young crickets or eggs.
d. A leash or string for leading a dog.
1893. Daily News, 18 July, 6/3. Daykin had with him a dog, which he held by a lead.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 2 Sept., 5/3. Seeing defendant with a muzzle in her hand and an unmuzzled toy terrier on a lead in Holborn.
4. Card-playing. The action or privilege of playing the first card in a round or trick. Also, the card so played, or proper to be played, or the suit to which it belongs. To return one’s partner’s lead: to play from the same suit on getting the lead.
1742. Hoyle, Whist, 11. If you have a Sequence of King, Queen, and Knave, or Queen, Knave, and Ten, they are sure Leads. Ibid., 12. You need seldom return your Partner’s Lead, if [etc.].
1862. ‘Cavendish,’ Whist (1879), 57. If all your suits are weak, the lead is very disadvantageous.
1885. Proctor, Whist, i. 21. A forced lead from Queen and one other.
1896. Daily News, 28 Jan., 6/4. The system of American leads—leads more frequently mentioned than adopted in England.
5. a. Curling. The first player, or the stone first played. Also, the course along which the stones are driven (Jamieson, 1825–80).
1685. Lintoun Green (1817), 38. Convened for a bonspeel, He … their lead, or driver leal.
1812. Sporting Mag., XL. 52. Whoever is lost in order … is called the driver and the first the lead.
1820. Blackw. Mag., VI. 572. The lead, or first stone, is always, except on very drug ice, expected to lie short.
b. Bowls. (See quot.)
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Bowling, Lead, the advantage of throwing the block and bowling first.
6. Mining. a. = LODE. b. Gold-mining. An alluvial deposit of gold along the bed of an ancient river. Also deep-lead, great-blue-lead (see quots.).
a. 1812. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana (1814), 148. Leads (or loads), are the smaller fissures that connect with the larger, which are called by the miners, caves.
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Roughing It, xl. (1882), 218. A ‘blind lead’ is a lead or ledge that does not ‘crop out’ above the surface.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Lead … See Lode.
1893. Gunter, Miss Dividends, 104. Capital … invested in the silver leads of the great mountains.
b. 1855. Argus (Melbourne), 19 Jan., 6/1. A great curiosity was discovered in a hole on this lead—a tree.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 16. The term ‘great blue-lead’ is employed by the miners to distinguish those portions of the alluvium which are found to rest in a well-defined channel.
1880. Fison & Howitt, Kamilaroi, 272, note. The expression ‘deep lead’ refers to those ancient river-courses which are now only disclosed by deep-mining operations.
1888. F. Hume, Mad. Midas, I. i. Who knew … where the richest leads had been in the old days.
7. Theatr. a. The leading or principal part in a play. b. One who plays such a part.
1874. F. C. Burnand, My Time, xxv. 229. She was a girl and playing the lead in the Northern Circuit.
1884. G. Moore, Mummer’s Wife (1887), 126. He had been playing heavy leads in Shakesperian revivals.
1885. J. K. Jerome, On the Stage, 63. Grey-headed stars, and respectable married leads.
8. a. Change-ringing. (See quot. 1874.) b. Mus. The giving out of a phrase or passage by one of the parts in a concerted piece, to be followed in harmony by the other parts.
1671. Stedman, Tintinnalogia, 55. In Ringing Half-pulls, some Peals do cut Compass, that is—the whole hunt comes to lead at the back stroke.
1834. Southey, Doctor, I. 304. A lead single was made in the middle of the peal.
1872. Punch, 27 April, 170/1. You always take up that ‘lead’ in the anthem so dreadfully ‘flat.’
1874. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, s.v. Bells, A bell is said to be ‘behind’ when she is the last of the changing bells, and at ‘lead’ when she is the first. Thus the progress from ‘lead’ to behind is said to be ‘going up,’ and from behind to lead is called ‘going down.’
9. Friendly lead (see FRIENDLY a. 2 b). Also simply lead.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 154. We went to a public-house where they were having ‘a lead,’ that is a collection for a friend who is ill, and the company throw down what they can for a subscription, and they have in a fiddle and make it social.
10. In various technical uses.
a. Electricity. (a) The angle between the plane through the lines of contact of the brushes or collectors of a dynamo or electric motor with the commutator and the transverse plane bisecting the magnetic field. (b) A conductor conveying electricity from the source to the place where it is used.
1881. Design & Work, 24 Dec., 455/2. Had properly insulated and erected ‘leads’ … been employed, no serious result would have followed personal contact.
1893. Sloane, Electr. Dict., Lead of Brushes in a dynamo electric generator, the lead or displacement in advance of or beyond the position at right angles to the line connecting the poles of the field magnet, which is given the brushes. In a motor the brushes are set back of the right angle position, or are given a negative lead.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 11 Nov., 9/1. The use of candles could be dispensed with by the use of a wandering lead with a hand electric light.
b. Engineering, etc. The distance to which ballast, coal, soil, etc., has to be carted or otherwise conveyed (see LEAD v.1 b) to its destination.
1852. Wiggins, Embanking, 113. The cost of earth-work depends on the nature of the soil, and the distance it has to be conveyed, which is called ‘the lead.’
1894. Westm. Gaz., 10 Feb., 6/1. Instead of sending the coal east and west with short ‘leads,’ the company had to send it north and south with very long ‘leads.’
c. Horology. The action of a tooth, as a tooth of a wheel, in impelling another tooth or pallet.
1880. Tripplin & Rigg, Saunier’s Mod. Horology, 40.
d. Naut. The direction in which running ropes lead fair, and come down to the deck (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867). Cf. FAIR-LEAD.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seamen’s Catech., 37. Ropes that want a lead can have one … by using a snatch block.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 30 Oct., 4. He knows … the lead of the ropes, the use of a boat, and a score of other things.
1897. R. Kipling, Captains Courageous, 73. The lead of each rope was fixed in Harvey’s mind by the end of the rope itself.
e. Sawing. ‘The overhang of a saw, to extend the cut throughout the length of the saw and to carry the saw back in the kerf during the return stroke’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875).
f. Steam-engine. (See quots.)
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Lead of the crank, the setting of the crank of one engine a little in advance of the right angle to the other; namely at 100° or 110° in place of 90°. This assists in rendering the motion of the piston more uniform, by moderating its velocity at the end of the stroke.
1881. Metal World, No. 18. 274. The steam-port is open a very small amount when the crank is in this condition [on the dead centre], the amount that the steam-port is then open being termed the lead of the valve.
1895. Mod. Steam Engine, 39. This amount of opening before the piston commences its stroke is called the lead of the slide.
11. attrib. and Comb.: lead-bars Coaching, the bars to which the traces of the leaders are attached; lead-horse, a horse that is guided by a lead (see 3 d); lead-mule (cf. lead-horse); lead-off, a commencement; also that which ‘leads-off,’ the first of a series; lead-reins Coaching, the leaders’ reins; lead-screw, ‘the main screw of a lathe, which gives the feed motion to the slide-rest’ (Webster, 1864).
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 188. Both check-reins were carried away and the *lead bars broken.
1828. J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 256. Total weight carried by the *lead horse.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 345. Give me the *lead-mule, and the rest of us will go on to camp.
1892. Fun, 20 Nov., 225/2. It contains ‘Seven Christmas Eves,’ the first or *lead off being by clever Miss Graves.
1896. Outing (U. S.), XXX. 111/1. The buckles on these *lead-reins should hang even over the leader’s quarters…. You have now both lead-reins in your left hand.
