a. Forms: 4 leeddy, 5 ledi, 6 ledy(e, leadie, -ye, 5– leady. [f. LEAD sb.1 + -Y1.] Resembling lead, usually in color.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xii. (1495), 319. Saturnus tokenyth sorowe … his colour is blacke leeddy and false.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 197. Þe face … is sumwhat ledi…. Her nailis bicomeþ ledi.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 65. Wann or leady Colour.
1534. Elyot, Gov., II. (1557), 124. His ruddy lippes wan, & his eyen ledye & holow.
a. 1536. Beauty & Good Prop. Women, C j. And to calisto with this gyrdle celestina Shall go and his ledy hart make hole & lyght.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 102. His eyes grow dim, his heart turnes leady.
1756. Dict. Arts & Sci., s.v. Porcelain, This colour has a leady cast like metal-burning mirrors.
1824. Mech. Mag., No. 52. 383. Every part of the iron … will be found to be unusually soit and leady.
1892. Constance Fenimore Woolson, in Harper’s Mag., LXXXIV. 570/2. Glacier water … always gray—a sort of lead-y gray.
