Obs. Forms: 1 léas, 2–3 lees, 3 læs, 3–5 lese, 3–6 les, 4–5 lees, lesse, 4–6 less, 5–6 leace, Sc. leis(s, (5 leas(s)e, leys, 6 lase). [Com. Teut.: OE. léas corresponds to OFris. lâs, OS., OHG., MHG. lôs (Du., G. los), ON. lauss (Sw. lös, Da. løs), Goth. laus:—OTeut. *lauso-, f. *laus- (: *leus-: lus-, whence LOSE v.), an extension of the OAryan root *leu- (Gr. λύειν to loosen). The suffix -LESS is etymologically identical with the present word; LOOSE a. is an adoption of the ON. equivalent lauss.
In the Teut. langs. generally the word had the senses ‘loose,’ ‘free, unoccupied,’ ‘destitute of,’ ‘loose in conduct, immoral,’ ‘vain, empty, worthless.’ In OE. the only senses are ‘destitute of’ (see -LESS) and ‘false, lying.’]
A. adj. Untrue, false, lying.
a. 900. Kent. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 59/43. Testem fallacem, leasa ʓewitnesse.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 255. Þa þe weren swa lese [13[?] in E. E. P., 31 lease] þet me hom ne mihte ileuen.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 71. We shule no þing seien þat les beo.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1779. Leaueð to leuen lengre on þes lease maumez.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3498. Ne swer it [God’s name] les to fele in gamen.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 34. Bot þe Northeren men held him no leaute … & forsoke Edrede, þer were þei les.
a. 1366[?]. Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 8. An Authour … That halt not dremes false ne lees.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 298/1. Lees, or false, falsus.
c. 1450. Erle Tolous, 1086. So are ye lythyr and lees.
c. 1450. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 354. He droff from me the fendes lees.
B. sb. Untruth, falsehood, lying. Common in ME. poetry in the expletive without(en, but lease.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xli. § 1. Þone mon mæʓ hatan buton lease soþe sunne.
c. 1205. Lay., 28150. Þat isæid ich þe habbe soð buten lease.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3514. False witnesse dat ðu ne bere, Ne wið ðe lese non ma[n] ne dere.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 5747. O moder bath and maiden clene, Þat siþen lang, wit-vten less, Bar child and sco þerof wemles.
c. 1305. St. Lucy, 155, in E. E. P. (1862), 105. A ioyful teþinge ic ȝou telle þat soþ is and les noȝt.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xix. (Cristofore), 99. Sa held he furth lange but lese, til he come in a wildirnes.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1022 (Dido). Thus seyt the bok withoutyn ony les.
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), I. xvi. It is soth & no lees.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., i. 158. We held with hym ther he saide leasse.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, I. 24. He knawis gif this be leiss.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. ii. 115. By Olearon, and mony ilis, but les.
15[?]. Adam Bel, 460, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 158. Syr, we be outlawes of the forest, Certayne without any leace.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 188. Flanders of nede must with vs haue peace Or els shee is destroyed without lees.
