Forms: α. 3, 5 lece, 4 leesse, 4–5 lees, 4–6 les, lese, 5–7 leace, lease, (5 leese, leys, lyes, 6 leasse). β. 4 Sc. leysche, 4–7 lesh, 5 lesshe, leeshe, 5–6 Sc. lische, 6 leysshe, leshe, leas(s)he, Sc. leish, leisch, lesch, (7 leach), 6– leash. [a. OF. lesse, laisse (mod.F. laisse) ? :—L. laxa fem. of laxus LAX a.]
1. The thong or line in which hounds or coursing-dogs are held. Phr. † With the leash, † at a leash, on or in (the or a) leash. Proverbial phr. † As greyhound (let out) of leash.
α. a. 1300. St. Gregory, 822, in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LVII. 68. Houndes þat were liȝt & lent To leten of lece, to cacche beste.
13[?]. Coer de L., 1923. As greyhounds stricken out of lesse, Kyng Richard threst among the press.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 9126 (Kölbing). Merlin smot forþ, þai after dasse On aiþer half, so grehounde of lasse.
a. 1400. Octouian, 767. As glad as grehond y-lete of lese Florent was than.
c. 1440. Partonope, 558. Her lees were as softe as sylk.
1475. Bk. Noblesse, 16. Every man … had a masty hound at a lyes.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 85. In comes another his houndes at his tayle, With lynes and leases and other like baggage.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Eng. Dogs, 7. Beyng restrained and drawne backe from running at random with the leasse.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 1027. Having in his right hand a Club, and in his left hand a Leace, unto the which Thyus was tied.
1640. trans. Verdere’s Rom. of Rom., I. xxviii. 130. Perceiving a Damsell comming in with two Lions in a lease, he went speedily down [etc.].
β. 1356–7. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 558. Pro catenis, chapes, et leshes, et uno Cornu pro venatore,… 7s. 11d.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VII. 414. His leysche till him drew he, And leit his houndis gang all fre.
c. 1440. Ipomydon, 785. Furthe he went with greyhondis thre, In a lesshe he dyd hem do.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 134. He that will labour a beast to hunt or chase … His lines, colers, and leshes he must dresse.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. ix. 104. He that the lische and lyame in schondir draue.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 74/1. The Fewterer … shall receive the Greyhounds matched to run together, into his Leash, as soon as he comes into the Field.
1808. Wordsw., Force of Prayer, iii. [He] holds a greyhound in a leash, To let slip upon buck or doe.
1830. Scott, Demonol., iv. 131. She led three greyhounds in a leash.
1879. ‘Ouida,’ C. Castlemaine, 5. Fretting like staghounds held in leash.
1888. H. Fennell, in Times, 13 Oct., 7/6. The hounds, hunted on the leash. Ibid., 16 Oct., 10/5. The hound worked on leash from the spot where the deer had lodged.
transf. 1741. Mem. M. Scriblerus, I. i. 10. A Paper kite which had broke its leash by the impetuosity of the wind.
† b. The leash: (a) the department of the king’s household concerned with the keeping of the hounds; (b) the art or practice of coursing.
1526. Househ. Ord. (1790), 194. The charge of 68 loves of bread served to the officers of the Lesh for the expences of the Kings Greyhounds.
1552. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. xxxiii. 540. The office of child of the leashe to Iohn Streete for life, with the wages of 40s. by year.
1611. Markham, Country Content., I. vii. (1615), 104. Touching the lawes of the lease or coursing. Ibid., 106. Those which are chosen Iudges of the leashe, shall giue their iudgements before they depart from the field.
c. 1628. Warrant, in Verney Papers (1853), 180. Lord Compton, master of his majestys leash.
1665. Warrant, in Sporting Mag., XLII. 10. Like as my perdecessors masters of the Leash.
2. A set of three; originally in Sporting language, used of hounds, hawks, foxes, hares, deer, etc.; hence gen.
α. c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 446. Tristrem hunters seiȝe ride, Les of houndes þai ledde.
1376–7. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 387. In uno lese et uno pare de turetteis.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 21424. Swyche houndys … God wot, I ha mo than a les.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj b. A Lece of thessame haukis, iij.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Faulconrie, 166. They cast off a cast or a lease of Sacres, which follow the peregrine falcon.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, VI. 231. As we passed we see a lease of Bucks.
1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, IV. (1691), 42. I put in for a brace, or a lease.
1723. True Briton, No. 15 I. 126. Giving their Suffrages for the Good of their Country … and this too, not by Couples or Leases, but by Scores, almost, at a time.
β. c. 1450. Merlin, 181. Gawein … ledde in honde a leeshe of grehoundes, and ledde also two brace folowinge hym.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 592. Here is a leysshe of ratches to renne an hare.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, Ep. Ded. (Arb.), 9. Thee third [posy] (for I wyl present your lordship with a leshe).
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 7. Sirra, I am sworn brother to a leash of Drawers … Tom, Dicke, and Francis.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., III. ii. I … kept my chamber a leash of daies for the anguish of it.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. i. 104. Or Cerberus himself pronounce A Leash of Languages at once.
1705. Double Welcome, xvi. 7. A Leash of Armies on thy Plains appear.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 51, ¶ 8. A leash of hares to be potted by his wife.
1792. Munchausen’s Trav., xxi. 88. I have acquired precisely nine hundred and ninety-nine leash of languages.
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxii. A brace of wild-ducks and a leash of teal.
1838. Apperley, Nimrod’s North. Tour (1874), 259. We found a leash of foxes, one after another.
1859. Tennyson, Lynette, 50. Then were I wealthier than a leash of Kings.
1882. Gd. Words, 604. I contrived to bag a leash of trout.
3. Hawking. The thong or string that is passed through the varvels of the jesses to secure the hawk.
1497. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1877), I. 366. Item for chessis and lischis thare vjd.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Faulconrie, 147. Tying … a cryance unto your hawkes lease.
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), Gloss., Lease or leash is a small long thong of leather, by which the Faulconer holdeth his Hawke fast, folding it many times about their fingers.
1635. Quarles, Embl., V. ix. (1718), 282. But her too faithful leash doth soon retain Her broken flight, attempted oft in vain.
1686. Blome, Gentl. Recreat., II. 62. Lease or Leach.
1826. Sir J. S. Sebright, Hawking (1823), 11. When he has been furnished with the necessary appendages of hood, bells, jesses, and leash, he is to be tied to the block.
1874. Tennyson, Vivien, 123. Their talk was all of … terms of art, Diet and seeling, jesses, leash and lure.
4. fig. (with allusion to senses 1 and 3); esp. in phrases, To hold or have in leash, to have control over, keep in bondage.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, IV. xl. (1869), 195. She is prioresse, whiche leedeth alle þe cloystreres in les, bounden bi hondes and bi feet.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 71. Wrath ledeth shame in a lese.
1560. Becon, New Catech., IV. Wks. 1564, I. 422. For God hathe them in lease. Yea … they are his slaues.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 477. What I was, I am: More straining on, for plucking backe; not following My leash vnwillingly.
1648. Boyle, Seraph. Love, xii. (1700), 62. The ravish’d Soul being shewn such Game as that, would hate so eagerly, that she would break those Leashes that tye her to the Body.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. i. 178. We lead along In leashes … The clouds that are heavy with love’s sweet rain.
1842. Tennyson, Love & Duty, 40. Thy low voice … would … hold passion in a leash.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., II. iv. His ministers Must lure, not drag in leash.
1856. Miss Mulock, J. Halifax, xvii. (1859), 181. It was easy to see … that, did he once slip the leash of his passions, it would go hard with Richard Brithwood.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VI. li. 231. The soldiers, long held in the leash … were eager to spring upon the foe.
† 5. A snare, noose. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 233. With oon worde him list not oonys deyne To brynge ageyne my sorouful hert in pees, For he is kaught vp in a noþer lees.
1814. Cary, Dante, Par., XXVIII. 12. Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love Had made the leash to take me.
† 6. Sc. = LASH sb.1 Obs. (Cf. LEASH v. 2.)
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 45. Lat him lay sax leichis on thy lendis.
1508. Dunbar, Flyting w. Kennedie, 100. Thow art bot Gluncoch with thy giltin hippis, That for thy lounry mony a leish hes fyld.
1. Weaving. a. One of the cords (having an eye in the middle to receive the warp-thread) that extends between the parallel laths of the heddle of a loom. Also written leish.
1731. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 105. Some of these Frames are made like a Loom, with a Warp passed through the Leishes.
1878. Barlow, Weaving, 77. The headles consist of two laths, between which are stretched the required number of ‘leashes’ usually made of linen thread, and having an eye formed in the middle of them.
b. = LEASE sb.4 2.
1888. J. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 463/2. At each end of the warp the threads are, by a mechanical device in the heck, made to intersect alternately, forming leashes, which are, when taken from the reel, separately tied up, and thus aid in maintaining the parallelism of the ends when they are bundled up.
8. attrib., as leash-hound, -man; † leash-law (see quot.).
1679. Blount, Anc. Tenures, 46. Leash-hounds or Park-hounds, such as draw after a hurt Deer in a Leash or Liam.
1721. Bailey, Leash-Laws, are Laws to be observed in Hunting or Coursing.
c. 1817. Hogg, Tales & Sk., II. 91. [He] ordered that the leashmen should exert themselves in recovering their scattered hounds.
