Forms: 1 léaden, 4 ledun, 4–5 leden, 5 ledyn, 6 leeden, 6– leaden. [OE. léaden: see LEAD sb.1 and -EN4.
The absence of umlaut shows that the word was formed in OE., not inherited from WGer. Cf. Du. looden.]
1. Consisting or made of lead.
c. 1000. in Schmid, Gesetze, 414. Si þæt alfæt isen oððe æren, leaden oððe læmen.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 426. Mid leadenum swipum langlice swingan.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Macc. iv. 14. Pleying with ledun dishe.
1420. E. E. Wills (1882), 46. Also iijc, of ledyn wyȝtis.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. vii. 15. What says this leaden casket?
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 87. Leaden gutters.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 43. Swifter than a whirlwind flies the leaden death.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 558. Distilled in a leaden, earthen, or glass retort.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 638. Deposited in a leaden coffin.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 252. She descended into the deep like a leaden plummet.
1883. R. W. Dixon, Mano, IV. xii. 177. The leaden roofs arose like terraces Behind the battlements.
b. In allegorical contexts, with allusion to qualities of the metal or to the fig. senses below, as in leaden key, sceptre, attributed poet. to the powers of sleep or dullness; leaden sword, the type of an ineffectual weapon.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 396. He heweth at it with his leaden sworde.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 268. O Murd’rous slumber! Layest thou thy Leaden Mace vpon my Boy…?
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., IV. iii. 1887. Those leaden spouts, That nought downe vent but what they do receiue.
1682. O. N., trans. Boileau’s Lutrin, I. 35. When Eyes and Ears Nights leaden Key composes.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., I. 20. Night … stretches forth Her leaden sceptre o’er a slumb’ring world.
1829. H. Neele, Lit. Rem., 33. The leaden sceptre of French taste was stretched over the tragic drama.
2. transf. and fig. a. Of base quality or composition; of little value; opposed to golden. b. Heavy as if made of lead; oppressive, burdensome; (of the limbs) hard to drag along, tardy in movement; hence said of movement, etc.; (of slumber or soporific influences) heavy, dull, benumbing. c. With allusion to the want of elasticity in the metal: Inert, spiritless, depressing. d. Of a dull, cold, pale color; dull grey.
a. 1577. Batman (title), The Golden Booke of the Leaden Goddes.
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., II. ii. (1598), D 1 b. Base leaden Earles, that glory in your birth.
1612. Bp. Hall, Serm. Imprese of God, II. Wks. (1625), 455. The Church of Rome … (which cares not if she haue golden vessels, though she haue leaden Prests).
1616. Capt. Smith, Descr. New Eng., 33. The golden age and the leaden age.
b. 1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 172. Though God haue leaden handes, which when they strike pay home.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm., xii. 197. It is good for a iudge commonly to haue leaden feete.
1609. Ev. Wom. in Hum., III. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. Lay not a leaden loade of foule reproach Upon so weake a prop.
1713. C’tess Winchilsea, Misc. Poems, 13. [He] courts deforming Death, to mend his Leaden pace.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 610. Leaden slumbers press his drooping eyes.
1827–44. Willis, Jephthah’s Dau., 25. Onward came The leaden tramp of thousands.
1860. Reade, Cloister & H., xxxviii. (1896), 112. He has risen, and was dragging his leaden limbs along.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, I. i. 15. That leaden weight which pressed mine eyelids to reluctant sleep.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Feb., 4/1. I have never felt the atmosphere of the House so leaden.
c. 1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 34. The tender boy, Who … powted in a dull disdaine, With leaden appetite.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., vi. Wks. 1851, III. 124. To bring … an unactive blindnesse of mind upon the people by their leaden doctrine.
1647. R. Baron, Cyprian Acad., I. 8. Saturne, that leaden planet did cast his melancholy influence over all his intellectuals.
1865. Merivale, Rom. Emp., VIII. lxiv. 90. Under its leaden rule little scope was left for the free and healthy exercise of mind.
1889. Times (weekly ed.), 20 Dec., 5/2. In ‘the Progress of Spring’ are leaden lines.
d. c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 175. Wher my colour was bothe fresh and reed Now is it wan and of leden hewe.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex., I. viii. 65. It declyneth to a swart and leaden colour, such as we see in men in the cold Wynter.
1840. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), V. 131. Sleepless nights passed under the leaden eye of him he … sent to death.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 4. The sky was leaden.
1877. Black, Green Past., xxxiv. (1878), 270. The green islands lay desolate in the midst of the leaden sea.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 205. The vesicle … has a uniform purple or leaden appearance.
3. Qualifying other adjectives.
1844. Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), I. 288. The lights being often a blaze of gold, and the shadows a dark leaden grey.
1846. Beddoes, Let., Poems p. cix. Prose of the leadenest drab dye has ever pursued Your humble servant.
1885. R. L. & F. Stevenson, Dynamiter, 126. Within, like a black and leaden-heavy kernel, he was conscious of the weight upon his soul.
1894. R. B. Sharpe, Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit., I. 33. Bill, leaden blue.
4. Comb. Chiefly parasynthetic, as leaden-colo(u)red, -eyed, -footed, -headed, -hearted (hence leaden-heartedness), -heeled, -hued, -natured, -pated, -skulled, -spirited, -thoughted, -weighted, -willed, -winged; also leaden-stepping, in which leaden is quasi-adv.; leaden-like adv.
1598. Florio, Plombeo,… *leaden coloured.
1816. Shelley, Alastor, 557. Leaden-coloured even.
1820. Keats, Ode Nightingale, 28. *Leaden-eyed despairs.
1596. R. L[inche], Diella (1877), 61. *Leaden-footed griefe.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 246. Never before … had I felt time to be so leaden-footed.
1589. Marprel. Epit., E iij. Not … so *leaden-headed as your brother Bridges.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., i. A leaden-headed old corporation.
1596. R. L[inche], Diella (1877), 31. *Leaden-harted sleepe.
1864. E. Murray, E. Norman, III. 28. He subsided into a sort of *leaden-heartedness.
1598. E. Guilpin, Skial. (1878), 35. Thys *leaden-heeled passion is to dull, To keepe pace with this Satyre-footed gull.
1877. W. Black, Green Past., xxvii. (1878), 221. Water—*leaden-hued—with no trace of phosphorescent fire in it.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep. (1577), 169. To write so heauie or *leadenlike, your Lordship had no occasion.
1889. Skrine, Mem. E. Thring, 42. The … *leaden-natured boy.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. viii. (1632), 220. I was the … most *leaden-pated to learne my lesson.
1681. Heraclitus Ridens, No. 42 (1713), II. 19. The Leaden-pated Gentleman propounded the Matter.
c. 1600[?]. Distracted Emp., V. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 242. What a *leaden-skulld slave he makes me.
1609. J. Davies, Humours Heaven on Earth (Grosart), 10/2. Let leane-fac’d *leaden-spirited Saturnists … Prate what they list.
1630[?]. Milton, Time, 2. The lazy *leaden-stepping hours.
1596. R. L[inche], Diella (1877), 52. Now *leaden-thoughted Morpheus dyms each sight.
1888. T. W. Reid, Life W. E. Forster, I. 75. *Leaden-weighted lethargy.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 58. Summons my Muse … Her *leaden-winged crest aloft to raise.
a. 1645. Featley, Reynolds, in Fuller, Abel Rediv. (1867), II. 243. We university men were *leaden-witted, who admired so dull a man.
Hence Leadenly adv., in a leaden manner; without elasticity or spring; after the manner, or with the effect of a leaden weight. Leadenness, the quality of being leaden both in a material and an immaterial sense.
1611. Cotgr., Ternissure, palenesse … leadennesse of colour.
1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, II. vii. 141. It had sunk suddenly and leadenly under the sense of imprisonment.
1893. Beatrice Harraden, Ships that pass, 99. The lovelessness and leadenness of his temperament.
1895. Crockett, Cleg Kelly, xxvii. She went leadenly up the steps.
