And by leadmen for the nonce, LEAF. n. s. leaves, plural. [lear, Sax. This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms. Shakesp. O'er barren mountains, o'er the flow'ry plain, Her leafy arms with such extent were spread, Philips. You peers, continue this united league: We come to be informed by yourselves, "Twixt us and them no league nor amity. Denham. Where fraud and falsehood invade society, the band presently breaks, and men are put to a loss where to league and to fasten their dependances. South. A man shall seldom fail of having cherries borne by his graft the same year in which his ingion is made, if his graft have blossom buds; whereas if it were only leaf buds, it will not bear fruit till the second season. Boyle. Those things which are removed to a distant view, ought to make but one mass; as the leaves on the trees, and the billows in the sea. Dryd. 1. A league; leuca, Lat. from lech, Welsh; 2. A part of a book, containing two a stone that was used to be erected at the end of every league. Camden. pages. Happy, ye leaves, when as those lily hands Shall handle you. Spenser. Peruse my leaves through ev'ry part, And think thou seest my owner's heart Scrawl'd o'er with trifles. 3. One side of a double door. Swift. The two leaves of the one door were folding. 1 Kings. 4. Any thing foliated, or thinly beaten." Eleven ounces two pence sterling ought to be of so pure silver, as is called leaf silver, and then the melter must add of other weight seventeen pence halfpenny farthing. Camden. Leaf gold, that flies in the air as light as down, is as truly gold as that in an ingot. Digby. To LEAF. v. n. [from the noun.] To bring leaves; to bear leaves. Most trees fall off the leaves at autumn; and if not kept back by cold, would leaf about the solstice. Brown. LEAGUE. n. s. [lieuë, Fr.] 2. A measure of length, containing three Ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues, LEAGUED. adj. [from league.] Con- And now thus leagu'd by an eternal bond, Philips. We will bind and hoodwink him so, that he shall suppose no other but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries, when we bring him Shakesp. to our own tents. LEAFLESS. adj. [from leaf.] Naked LEAK. n. s. [leck, leke, Dut.] A breach of leaves. Bare honesty, without some other adornment, being looked on as a leafless tree, nobody will take himself to its shelter. Government of the Tongue. Where doves in flocks the leafless trees o'ershade, And lonely woodcocks haunt the wat'ry glade. Pope. Full of LEAFY. adj. [from leaf.] leaves. The frauds of men were ever so, Since summer was first leafy. or hole which lets in water. There will be always evils, which no art of man can cure: breaches and leaks more than man's wit hath bands to stop. Hooker. The water rushes in, as it doth usually in the leak of a ship. They will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we leak in your chimney. Shakesp His feet should be washed every day in colc water; and have his shoes so thin, that they might leak, and let in water. Locke. 2. To drop through a breach, or discon The water, which will perhaps by degrees leak Women are so leaky, that I have hardly met with one that could not hold her breath longer than she could keep a secret. L'Estrange. To LEAN. v. n. preter. leaned or leant. [plinan, Sax. lenen, Dut.] 1. To incline against; to rest against. Shak. Lean thine aged back against mine arm, And in that case I'll tell thee my disease. Security is expressed among the medals of Gordianus, by a lady leaning against a pillar, a scepter in her hand, before an altar. Peach.on Drawing. The columns may be allowed somewhat above their ordinary length, because they lean unto so good supporters. Wotton. Upon his iv'ry sceptre first he leant, Then shook his head, that shook the firmament. Dryden. Oppress'd with anguish, panting and o'erspeut, His fainting limbs against an oak he leant. Dryden. If God be angry, all our other dependencies will profit us nothing; every other support will fail under us when we come to lean upon it, and deceive us in the day when we want it most. Rogers. Then leaning o'er the rails he musing stood. Gay. 'Mid the central depth of black'ning woods, High rais'd in solemn theatre around Leans the huge elephant. Thomson. Wilkins. LEAN. adj. [plæne, Sax.] Whether she sprung a leak I cannot find, Shakesp. To LEAK. v. n. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus? -Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth. Milton. 1. To let water in or out. 1. Not fat; meagre; wanting flesh; bareboned. Lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change. Shakesp 1 am warm'd, my heart Leaps at the trumpet's voice, and burns for glory. He parted frowning from me, as if ruin I would invent as bitter searching terms, With full as many signs of deadly hate, As lean-fac'd envy in her loathsome cave. Shakesp. Seven other kine came out of the river ill-favour'd and lean-fleshed. Gen. xli. 3. Let a physician beware how he purge after hard frosty weather, and in a lean body, without preparation. Bacon. And fetch their precepts from the cynic tub, Praising the lean and sallow abstinence. Milton. To LEAP. v. a. Swear that Adrastus, and the lean-look'd pro-1. phet, Dryden and Lee. Are joint conspirators. Lean people often suffer for want of fat, as fat people may by obstruction of the vessels. Arbuthnot. That which combin'd us was most great, and let not A leaner action rend us. Shakesp. 4. Jejune; not comprehensive; not embellished: as, a lean dissertation. LEAN. n. s. That part of flesh which consists of the muscle without the fat. With razors keen we cut our passage clean Through rills of fat, and deluges of lean. Farquhar. LEANLY. adv. [from lean.] Meagerly; without plumpness. LE'ANNESS. n. s. [from lean.] To pass over, or into, by leaping. As one condemn'd to leap a precipice, Prior. Too soon they must not feel the sting of love: 3. After they have carried their riders safe over all leaps, and through all dangers, what comes of them in the end but to be broken-winded. L'Estrange. Sudden transition. Wickedness comes on by degrees, as well as virtue; and sudden leaps from one extreme to another are unnatural. L'Estrange. The commons wrested even the power of chusing a king intirely out of the hands of the nobles; which was so great a leap, and caused such a convulsion in the state, that the constitution could not bear. Swift. 4. An assault of an animal of prey. The cat made a leap at the mouse. L'Estrange. 1. Extenuation of body; want of flesh; 5. Embrace of animals. meagreness. The symptoms of too great fluidity are excess of universal secretions, as of perspiration, sweat, urine, liquid dejectures, leanness and weakness. Arbuthnot. 2. Want of matter; thinness; poverty. If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vault- 6. How she cheats her bellowing lover's eye; Methinks, it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon. Behold that dreadful downfal of a rock, If I could win a lady at leap-frog, I should year, You may rely upon my tender care, The lion stoop to him in lowly wise, Spenser's Fairy Queen. For learning ine your language. Shakesp. Tempest. Hast thou not learn'd me how Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly. Matt. xi. 29. In imitation of sounds, that man should be the teacher is no part of the matter; for birds will learn one of another. Bacon's Nat. Hist. LEARNED. adj. [from learn.] 1. Versed in science and literature. It is indifferent to the matter in hand, which The learned met with free approach, The apostle seemed in his eyes but learnedly Leap-year or bissextile is fourth Harris. The reason of the name of leap-year is, that a That the sun consisteth of 365 days and almost Brown. 2. Learn a parable of the fig-tree. Matt. xxiv. 32 He, in a shorter time than was thought possible, learned both to speak and write the Arabian tongue. Knolles. As Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, so it is manifest from this chapter, that St. Paul was a great master in all the learning of the Greeks. Bentley. Skill in any thing good or bad. An art of contradiction by way of scorn, a learning wherewith we were long sithence forewarned, that the miserable times whereunto we Hooker. are fallen should abound. LEARNER. n. s. [from learn.] One who is yet in his rudiments; one who is acquiring some new art or knowledge. The late learners cannot so well take the ply, except it be in some minds that have not suffered themselves to fix. Bacon Nor can a learner work so cheap as a skilful practised artist can. Graunt's Bills of Mortality. LEASE. n. s. [laisser, Fr. Spelman.] 1. A contract by which, in consideration of some payment, a temporary possession is granted of houses or lands. Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world, It were a shame to let this land by lease. Shakesp. Lords of the world have but for life their lease, And that too, if the lessor please, must cease. Denham. Our high-plac'd Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature. Thou to give the world increase, Short'ned hast thy own life's lease. To LEASE. v. a. let by lease. Shakesp. Milton. [from the noun.] To Where the vicar leases his glebe, the tenant must pay the great tythes to the rector or impropriator, and the small tithes to the vicar. Ayliffe. To LEASE. v. n. [lesen, Dut.] To glean; to gather what the harvest men leave. She in harvest us'd to lease; But harvest done, to chare-work did aspire, Meat, drink, and two-pence, was her daily hire. Dryden. LEA'SER. n. s. [from lease.] Gleaner; gatherer after the reaper. There was no office which a man from England might not have; and I looked upon all who were born here as only in the condition of leasers and gleaners. Swift. LEASH. n. s. [lesse, Fr. letse, Dut. laccio, Ital.] 1. A leather thong, by which a falconer holds his hawk, or a courser leads his greyhound. Hanmer. Holding Corioli in the name of Rome, Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, To let him slip at will. Shakesp. What was, I am ; More straining on, for plucking back; not following My leash unwillingly. 2. A tierce; three. Shak. Winter's Tale. Shak I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers, and can call them all by their Christian names. Some thought when he did gabble, Th'ad heard three labourers of Babel, A leash of languages at once. Hudibras. Thou art a living comedy; they are a leash of dull devils. Dennis's Letters. 3. A band wherewith to tie any thing in general. The ravished soul being shewn such game, would break those leashes that tie her to the body. Boyle To LEASH. y. a. [from the noun.] To bind; to hold in a string. Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, Leasht in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire, Gay. As folks, quoth Richard, prone to leasing, Say things at first, because they're pleasing; Then prove what they have once asserted, Nor care to have their lie deserted : Till their own dreams at length deceive them, And oft repeating they believe them. Trading free shall thrive again, Nor leasings lewd affright the swain. LEAST. adj. the superlative of little. [lært, Sax. This word Wallis would persuade us to write lest, that it may be analogous to less; but surely the profit is not worth the change.] Little beyond others; smallest I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies shewed to thy servant. Gen. xxxii. 10. A man can no more have a positive idea of the LEAST. adv. In the lowest degree; in a greatest than he has of the least space. Locke. degree below others; less than any other way. Upon the mast they saw a young man, at least if he were a man, who sat as on horseback. Sidney. Every effect doth after a sort contain, at leastwise resemble, the cause from which it proceedeth. Hooker. Honour and fame at least the thund'rer ow'd, And ill he pays the promise of a god. Pope. The remedies, if any, are to be proposed from a constant course of the milken diet, continued at least a year. Temple. A fiend may deceive a creature of more excellency than himself, at least by the tacit permis. sion of the omniscient Being. Dryden. 2. It has a sense implying doubt; to say no more; to say the least; not to say all that might be said. Whether such virtue spent now fail'd New angels to create, if they at least Are his created. Milton. Let useful observations be at least some part of the subject of your conversation. Watts. LEA'SY. adj. [This word seems formed from the same root with loisir, Fr. or loose.] Flimsy; of weak texture. Not 13. It is often used in composition for leathern. He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. 2 Kings, i. 8. And if two boots keep out the weather, The shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle; Is far beyond a prince's delicacies. Shakesp. LEATHERCOAT. n.s. [leather and coat.] An apple with a tough rind. There is a dish of leatherco its for you. Shakesp. LEATHER-DRESSER. n. s. [leather and dresser.] He who dresses leather; be who manufactures hides for use. He removed to Cumæ; and by the way was entertained at the house of one Tychius, a leatherdresser. Pope, LEATHER-MOUTHED. adj. [leather and mouth.] By a leather mouthed fish, I mean such as have their teeth in their throat; as, the chub or cheven. Walton's Angler. LEATHERY. adj. [from leather.] Resembling leather. Wormius calls this crust a leathery skin. Grew. LEATHERN. adj. [from leather.] Made No friend has leave to bear away the dead. Dryd. He takes this time his secret hate to shew. Dryden. 1 must ave leave to be grateful to any who serves me, let him be never so obnoxious to any party nor did the tory party put me to the hard ship of asking this leave. Pope. 2. Farewel; adieu. In this sense leave is permission to depart. Take leave and part, for you must part forthwith. Shakesp. What need you have two hides of leather? Prior. To LEAVE. v. a. pret. I left; I have left. 2. Skin: ironically. Returning sound in limb and wind, Except some leather lost behind. Swift. [Of the derivation of this word the etymologists give no satisfactory account.] He that is of an unthankful mind, will leave him in danger that delivered him. Ecclus. xxix. 17. 3. To depart from, without action: as, I left things as I found them. When they were departed from him, they left bim in great diseases. 2 Chron. xxiv. 25. 4. To have remaining at death. There be of them that have left a name behind them. Ecclus. xliv. 8. 5. Not to deprive of. They still have left me the providence of God, and all the promises of the gospel, and my charity to them too. 6. To suffer to remain. Taylor. 2. If it be done without order, the mind comprehendeth less that which is set down; and besides, it leaveth a suspicion, as if more might be said than is expressed. Bacon. These things must be left uncertain to farther discoveries in future ages. Abbot. 3. Who these are, to whom this right by descent belongs, he leaves cut of the reach of any one to discover from his writings. Locke. This I leave with my reader, as an occasion for him to consider, how much he may be beholden to experience. Locke. 10. To bequeath; to give as inheritance. That peace thou leav'st to thy imperial line, That peace, Oh happy shade! be ever thine. Dryd. 11. To give up; to resign. Thou shalt not glean thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger. Lev. xix. 10. If a wise man were left to himself, and his own choice, to wish the greatest good to himself he could devise; the sum of all his wishes would be this, That there were just such a being as God is. Tillotson 12. To permit without interposition. Whether Esau were a vassal, I leave the reader to judge. 13. To cease to do; to desist from. Locke. Let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us. 1 Sam. ix. 5. 14. To leave off. To desist from; to forbear. If, upon any occasion, you bid him leave off the doing of any thing, you must be sure to carry the point. Locke. I proportion as old age came on, he left off fox-hunting. Addison's Spectator. 15. To leave off. To forsake. He began to leave off some of his old acquaintance, his roaring and bullying about the streets: he put on a serious air. Arbuthnot. 16. To leave out. To omit; to neglect. I am so fraught with curious business, that I leave out ceremony. Shakesp. Winter's Tale. You may partake: I have told 'em who you are. -1 should be loth to be left out, and here too. Ben Jonson. What is set down by order and division doth demonstrate, that nothing is left out, or omitted, but all is there. Bacon. She is my essence, and I leave to be, If I be not by her fair influence Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive. Shakesp. And since this business so far fair is done, Let us not leave till all our own be won. Shakesp. He began at the eldest, and left at the youngest. Genesis. To leave off. To desist. Grittus, hoping that they in the castle would not hold out, left off to batter or undermine it, wherewith he perceived he little prevailed. Knolles. But when you find that vigorous heat abate, Leave off, and for another summons wait. Roscom. To leave off. To stop. Wrongs do not leave off there where they begin, But still beget new mischiefs in their course. Dan. To LEAVE. v. a. [from levy; lever, Fr.] To levy; to raise: a corrupt word, made, I believe, by Spenser, for a rhime. An army strong she leav'd, To war on those which him had of his realm bereav'd. Spenser's Fairy Queen. LEAVED. adj. [from l. aves, of leaf.] 1. Furnished with foliage. 2. Made with leaves or folds. I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates. Isa. xlv. 1. LEAVEN. n. s. [levain, Fr. levare, i at.] 1. Ferment mixed with any body to make it light; particularly used of sour dough mixed in a mass of bread. It shall not be baken with leaven. Lev. vi. 17. gested; and those unfermented, by barm or icaven, are hardly digested. Floyer. 2. Any mixture which makes a general change in the mass: it generally means something that depraves or corrupts that with which it is mixed. Many of their propositions savour very strongly of the old leaven of innovations. King Charles. To LE AVEN. v. n. [from the noun.] be cut off. Shakesp. Exod. xii. 17. Breads we have of several grains, with divers kinds of leavenings, and seasonings; so that some do extremely move appetites. 2. To taint; to imbue. That cruel something unpossest, Corrodes and leavens all the rest. Bacon. Prior. LE'AVER. n. s. [from leave.] One who deserts or forsakes. Let the world rank me in register A master-leaver and a fugitive. Shakesp. Parts fit for the nourishment of man in plants are, seeds, roots, and fruits; for leaves they give no nourishment at all. Bacon's Nat. Hist. LEAVINGS. n. s. [from leave.] Remnant; relicks; offal; refuse; it has no singular. My father has this morning call'd together, To this poor hall, his little Roman senate, The leavings of Pharsalia. Addison's Cato. Then who can think we'll quit the place, Swift. Or stop and light at Chloe's head, With scraps and leavings to be fed? LEAVY. adj. [from leaf.] Full of leaves; covered with leaves: leafy is more used. Strephon, with leavy twigs of laurel tree, down, Of village lord that Whitsontide to bear. Sidney. Now near enough: your leavy screens throw And show like those you are. Shakesp. To LECH. v. a. [lecher, Fr.] To lick over. Hanmer. Hast thou yet leched the Athenian's eyes With the love-juice? Shakesp. LECHER. n. s. [Derived by Skinner from luxure, old Fr. luxuria is used in the middle ages in the same sense.] A whore-master. I will now take the leacher; he's at my house; he cannot 'scape me. Shakesp. You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors. Shakesp. The lecher soon transforms his mistress; now In lö's place appears a lovely cow. Dryden. The sleepy lecher shuts his little eyes, About his churning chaps the frothy bubbles rise. Dryden. She yields her charms To that fair letcher, the strong god of arms. Pope. Το To LECHER. v. n. [from the noun.] whore. 1 Die for adultery No: The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly does letcher in my sight. Shak. Gut eats all day, and letchers all the night. Ben Jonson. LECHEROUS. adj. [from lecher.] Lewd; lustful. The sapphire should grow foul, and lose its beauty, when worn by one that is lecherous; the emerald should fly to pieces, if it touch the skin of any unchaste person. Derham. LECHEROUSLY. ade. [from lecherous.] Lewdly; lustfully. LECHEROUSNESS. n. s. [from lecherous.] Lewdness. LE CHERY. n. s. [from lecher.] Lewdness; lust. The rest welter with as little shame in open lechery, as swine do in the common mire. Ascham. Against such lewdsters, and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treachery. Shakesp. LECTION. n. s. [lectio, Lat.] A reading; a variety in copies. Every critick has his own hypothesis: if the common text be not favourable to his opinion, a various lection shall be made authentick. Watts LECTURE. n. s. [lecture, Fr.] 1. A discourse pronounced upon any subject. To LECTURE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To instruct formally. 2. To instruct insolently and dogmatically. To LECTURE. v. n. To read in publick ; to instruct an audience by a formal explanation or discourse: as, Wallis lectured on geometry. LECTURER. n. s. [from lecture.] Him, haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam, The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff, Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests the sea. Milton. Batter'd by his lee they lay, The passing winds through their torn canvass play. Dryden. LEECH. n. 8. [læc, Sax.] 1. An instructor; a teacher by way of lec-1. A physician; a professor of the art of ture. 2. A preacher in a church hired by the parish to assist the rector or vicar. If any minister refused to admit into his church a lecturer recommended by them, and there was not one orthodox or learned man recommended, he was presently required to attend upon the com mittee. Clarendon. LECTURES HIP. n. s. [from lecture.] The office of a lecturer. He got a lectureship in town of sixty pounds a year, where he preached constantly in person. LED. part. pret. of lead. Swift. Then shall they know that I am the Lord your God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen. Ezek. xxxix. 28. The leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed. Isa. ix. 16. As in vegetables and animals, so in most other bodies, not propagated by seed, it is the colour we most fix on, and are most led by. LEDGE. n. s. [leggen, Dut. to lie.] 1. A row; layer; stratum. Locke. The lowest ledge or row should be merely of stone, closely laid, without mortar : a general caution for all parts in building contiguous to board. Wotton's Architecture. 2. A ridge rising above the rest; or projecting beyond the rest. The four parallel sticks rising above five inches higher than the handkerchief, served as ledges on each side. Gulliver. 8. Any prominence, or rising part. Beneath a ledge of rocks his fleet he hides, The bending brow above a safe retreat provides. Dryden LEDHORSE. n. s. sumpter horse. LEE. n. s. [lie, Fr.] [led and horse.] A 1. Dregs; sediment; refuse: commonly lees. My cloaths, my sex, exchang'd for thee, I'll mingle with the people's wretched lee. Prior. 2. [Sea term; supposed by Skinner from leau, Fr.] It is generally that side. which is opposite to the wind, as the lee shore is that the wind blows on. To be under the lee of the shore, is to be close under the weather shore. A leeward ship is one that is not fast by a wind, to make her way so good as she might. To lay a ship by the lee, is to bring her so that all her sails may lie against the masts and shrowds flat, and the wind to come right on her broadside, so that she will make little or no way. Dict. healing whence we still use cow-leech. A leech, the which had great insight In that disease of grieved conscience, tience. And well could care the same; his name was Pa- Wise leeches will not vain receipts obtrude: Dryden. The hoary wrinkled leech has watch'd and toil'd, Tried every health-restoring herb and gum, And wearied out his painful skill in vain. A skilful leach, Rowc. They say, had wrought this blessed deed; This leach Arbuthnot was yclept. Gay's Pastorals. 2. A kind of small water serpent, which fastens on animals, and sucks the blood: it is used to draw blood where the lancet is less safe, whence perhaps the name. I drew blood by leeches behind his ear. Wiseman. Sticking like leeches, till they burst with blood, Without remorse insatiably. Roscommon. To LEECH. v. a. [from the noun.] To treat with medicaments. LEECHCRAFT. n. s. [leech and craft.] The art of healing. We study speech, but others we persuade : We leechcraft learn, but others cure with it. Davies. LEEF. adj. [lieve, leve, Dut.] Kind; fond. Whilome all these were low and leef, And lov'd their flocks to feed; They never strove to be the chief, And simple was their weed. Spenser's Pastorals. LEEK. n. s. [leac, Sax. loock, Dut. leechk, Erse; porrum, Lat.] A plant. Know'st thou Fluellen ?Yes. -Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate, Upon St. David's day. Shakesp. Leek to the Welsh, to Dutchmen butter's dear. Gay. We use acrid plants inwardly and outwardly in gangrenes; in the scurvy, water-cresses, horseradish, garlick, or leek pottage Floyer on Hum urs. LEER. n. s. [pleaɲe, Sax ] 1. An oblique view. A laboured cast of countenance. I place a statesman full before my sight; If we, in the bay of Biscay, had had a port the Indian fleet. The Hollanders were before Dunkirk with the wind at north-west, making a lee shore in all weathers. Raleigh. Unprovided of tackling and victualling, they are forced to sea by a storm; yet better do so than venture splitting and sinking on a lee shore. King Charles. To look obliquely; to look archly. I will leer upon him as he comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me. Shakesp. I wonder whether you taste the pleasure of independency, or whether you do not sometimes leer upon the court. Swift. 2. To look with a forced countenance. Bertran has been taught the arts of courts, To gild a face with smiles, and leer a man to ruin Dryden. LEES. n. s. [lie, Fr.] Dregs; sediment: it has seldom a singular. The memory of king Richard was so strong, that it lay like lees at the bottom of men's hearts; and if the vessel was but stirred, it would come up. Bacon's Henry VII If they love lees, and leave the lusty wine, Envy them not their palates with the swine. Those lees that trouble it, refine The agitated soul of generous wine. To LEESE. v. a. [lesen, Dut] an old word. Ben Jonson. Dryden. To lose: Then sell to thy profit both butter and cheese, Who buieth it sooner the more he shall leese. Tuss. No cause, nor client fat, will Chev'ril leese, But as they come on both sides he takes fees; And pleaseth both for while he melts his grease For this, that wins for whom he holds his peace. Ben Jonson. How in the port our fleet dear time did leese, Withering like prisoners, which lie but for fees. Donne. LEET. n. s. Leete, or leta, is otherwise called a law-day. The word stemeth to have grown from the Saxon lede, which was a court of jurisdiction above the wapentake or hundred, comprehending three or four of them, otherwise called thirshing, and contained the third part of a province or shire: these jurisdictions, one and other, be now abolished, and swallowed up in the county court. Who has a breast so pure, But some uncleanly apprehensions Cowell. Shakesp. Othello. You would present her at the leet, Because she bought stone jugs, and no seal'd quarts. Shakesp. LEEWARD. adj. [lee and peard, Sax.] Towards the wind. See LEE. The classica were called long ships, the onerariæ round, because of their figure approaching towards circular: this figure, though proper for the stowage of goods, was not the fittest for sailing, because of the great quantity of leeward way, except when they sailed full before the wind. Arbuthnot. Let no statesman dare A kingdom to a ship compare; Which just like ours, new rigg'd and man'd, Alas, poor lady! desolate and left; Swift. I weep myself to think upon thy words. Shakesp. Had such a river as this been left to itself, to have found its way out from among the Alps, whatever windings it had made, it must have formed several little seas. Addison. Were I left to myself, I would rather aim at instructing than diverting; but if we will be useful to the world, we must take it as we find it. Addison's Spectator. LEFT. adj. [lufte, Dut. lævus, Lat.] Sinistrous; not right. That there is also in men a natural prepotency in the right, we cannot with constancy affirm, if we make observation in children, who, permitted the freedom of both hands, do ofttimes confine it unto the left, and are not without great difficulty restrained from it. Brown's Vulgar Errours. The right to Pluto's golden palace guides, The left to that unhappy region tends, Which to the depth of Tartarus descends. Dryden. The gods of greater nations dwell around, And, on the right and left, the palace bounds; The commons where they can. A raven from a wither'd cak, Left of their lodging was oblig'd to croak That omen lik'd him not. Dryden. Dryden. |