lead
/lɛd/ · noun
Meaning
- A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82, symbol Pb (from Latin plumbum).
- A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or to estimate velocity in knots.
- A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
- Vertical space in advance of a row or between rows of text. Also known as leading.
- Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs.
- (plural leads) A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
- To cover, fill, or affect with lead
- To place leads between the lines of.
- The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction, course
- Precedence; advance position; also, the measure of precedence; the state of being ahead in a race; the highest score in a game in an incomplete game.
- An insulated metallic wire for electrical devices and equipment.
- The situation where a runner steps away from a base while waiting for the pitch to be thrown.
- The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played
- The main role in a play or film; the lead role.
- (heading) To guide or conduct.
- To guide or conduct, as by accompanying, going before, showing, influencing, directing with authority, etc.; to have precedence or preeminence; to be first or chief; — used in most of the senses of the transitive verb.
- (heading) To begin, to be ahead.
- To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure
- To tend or reach in a certain direction, or to a certain place.
- To produce (with to).
- Foremost.
- Main, principal
Etymology / origin
No prose etymology has been added yet.
No ancestor words have been linked yet.
Related words
Descendant words
No descendant words have been linked yet.