Also 5 lese, 6 leese, lesse. [ad. AF. lesser, a specific use of OF. lesser, laissier (mod.F. laisser) to let, let go:—L. laxāre to loosen, loose, f. lax-us loose, LAX a.]
1. trans. To grant the possession or use of (lands, etc.) by a lease (LEASE sb.3); to let out on lease.
[1292. Britton, II. xi. § 9. Si cestui … lesse sa terre a terme de la vie le lessour.]
1570. Levins, Manip., 204/43. To Lease or let leas, locare, dimittere.
1592. West, 1st Pt. Symbol., § 25 B. He which letteth, lesseth or setteth any thing to be made or used, is called … the lessor or lettor.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 59. This land … Is now Leas’d out … Like to a Tenement or pelting Farme.
a. 1600. G. Longe, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. III. 157. Having themselves no knowledge, [they] were driven to lease out the benefit of their Patent to the Frenchmen.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Pind. Ode Mem. Sir L. Cary & Sir H. Morison, iv. Leas’d out t’advance The profits for a time.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 285. Where the Vicar leases his Glebe, the Tenant must pay the great Tithes to the Rector or Impropriator.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., V. iii. (1869), II. 536. The lands in America … are in general not tenanted nor leased out to farmers.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 288. Lands were leased from the 10th October 1763, for eleven years.
1868. Peard, Water-Farm., ii. 21. Each proprietor leased his water to men who having no permanent interest in the river, killed every salmon they could catch.
transf. and fig. c. 1665. Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1846), 329. He would not give up bishops, but only lease out their revenues.
a. 1845. Hood, Plea Mids. Fairies, xii. ‘Alas,’ quoth she, ‘ye know our fairy lives Are leased upon the fickle faith of men.’
2. To take a lease of; to hold by a lease.
1877. ‘H. A. Page,’ De Quincey, I. xv. 319. In 1840 … the family was transported to Mavis Bush, a neat little cottage … which was leased for a period of years.
1892. Greta Armear, What was it? (ed. 2), 8. A rich Scotchman … had leased a large property … in order to indulge in his favourite sport with the famous Ballmore hounds.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 11 May, 4/2. Angling on the choice streams of the South … is hardly to be obtained unless by leasing a rod.
Hence Leased (līst) ppl. a.
1895. A. J. Wilson, Gloss. Terms Stock Exch., Leased Lines … those railway securities whose interest or dividends are dependent not on the earning power of the properties, but upon the rent agreed to be paid by the lessee company.
