lead

Adjective

1. Foremost.
   • The contestants are all tied; no one has the lead position.
   • For the first time ever, the senior architect and lead developer for a key enterprise system on NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission shares the secrets to one of the most difficult technology tasks […] - 2006,...

   Synonyms: first front head leader leading

2. Main, principal, primary, first, chief, foremost.
   • the lead guitarist in band
   • the lead developer on a software project
   • Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's ex-prime minister, has missed a verdict in a negligence trial that could have seen her jailed, prompting the Supreme Court to say it will issue an arrest warrant fearing she is a flight...

Noun Entry 2

1. The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction, course
   • to take the lead
   • to be under the lead of another
   • At the time I speak of, and having a momentary lead, […] I am sure I did my country important service. - 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him...
2. Precedence; advance position; also, the measure of precedence; the state of being ahead in a race; the highest score in an incomplete game.
   • the white horse had the lead.
   • to be in the lead
   • She lost the lead.
3. An insulated metallic wire for electrical devices and equipment.
4. The situation where a runner steps away from a base while waiting for the pitch to be thrown.
   • The runner took his lead from first.
5. The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played
   • your partner has the lead
6. The main role in a play or film; the lead role.
   • "You make moving pictures. In jungles and places." "That's me. And I've picked you for the lead in my next picture." - 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 43:
7. The actor who plays the main role; lead actor.
8. The person in charge of a project or a work shift etc.
   • John is the development lead on this software product.
9. A channel of open water in an ice field.
10. A lode.
11. The course of a rope from end to end.
12. A rope, leather strap, or similar device with which to lead an animal; a leash

Noun Entry 3

1. 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).

   Synonyms: plumbum

2. A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or to estimate velocity in knots.
3. A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
4. Vertical space in advance of a row or between rows of text. Also known as leading.
   • This copy has too much lead; I prefer less space between the lines.
5. Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs.
6. A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
   • I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top. - 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
   • These rooms were on a level with the apartments of our friends Bows and Costigan next door at No. 4; and by reaching over the communicating leads, Grady could command the mignonette-box which bloomed in Bows’s window. -...
7. A thin cylinder of graphite used in pencils.

   Synonyms: pencil lead

8. Bullets; ammunition.
   • They pumped him full of lead.
   • All my life I want money and power Respect my mind or die from lead shower - 2012, “Backseat Freestyle”, performed by Kendrick Lamar:
9. X-ray protective clothing lined with lead.
   • You must remember to wear your leads.

Verb heading

1. To guide or conduct.
   • a father leads a child
   • a jockey leads a horse with a halter
   • a dog leads a blind man

   1. To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection.

   2. To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, especially by going with or going in advance of; to guide somebody somewhere or to bring somebody somewhere by means of instructions.

      • The guide was able to lead the tourists through the jungle safely.
      • The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 13:21:
      • He leadeth me beside the still waters. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 23:2:

   3. (figuratively): To direct; to counsel; to instruct.

      • A good teacher should lead their students to the right answer.

   4. To conduct or direct with authority; to have direction or charge of; to command, especially a military or business unit.

      • to lead a political party
      • to lead the search team
      • Christ took not upon him flesh and blood that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies, or possess places. - 1664, Robert South, “(please specify the sermon number)A Sermon Preached Before the University at...

   5. To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure.

      • to lead someone to a righteous cause
      • And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:13:
      • Silly women, laden with sins, led away by divers lusts. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Timothy 3:6:

   6. To influence towards a belief, a conclusion, etc.

      • The evidence leads me to believe he is guilty.
2. 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.
3. To begin, to be ahead.
   • the big sloop led the fleet of yachts; the Guards led the attack; Demosthenes leads the orators of all ages
   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way.
   • And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. - c. 1819, Leigh Hunt, Abou Ben Adhem:

   1. (transitive) To go or to be in advance of; to precede; hence, to be foremost or chief among.

   2. (intransitive) To proceed in front of others; to go first.

      • The standard-bearers led and the rest of the marchers followed.

   3. (intransitive) To be more advanced in technology or business than others.

      • It leads in the information technology sector.

   4. (heading, sports) (transitive, card games, dominoes) To begin a game, round, or trick, with

      • to lead trumps
      • He led the ace of spades.

   5. (heading, sports) (intransitive) To be ahead of others, e.g., in a race.

   6. (heading, sports) (intransitive) To have the highest interim score in a game.

   7. (heading, sports) (baseball) To step off base and move towards the next base.

      • The batter always leads off base.

   8. (heading, sports) (shooting) To aim in front of a moving target, in order that the shot may hit the target as it passes.

   9. (heading, sports) (transitive, climbing) To lead climb.

4. To tend or reach in a certain spatial direction, or to a certain place.
   • the path leads to the mill
   • The mountain-foot that leads towards Mantua. - c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
5. To be a cause of. [with to]
   • gambling leads to other vices
   • Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there...
   • All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism. That worries the government, which fears that environmental activism could become the foundation for...

   Synonyms: lead to

6. To live or experience (a particular way of life).
   • That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 2:2:
   • Nor thou with shadow'd hint confuse / A life that leads melodious days. - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
   • Follow me now and you will not regret / Leaving the life you led before we met. / You are the first to have this love of mine, / Forever with me till the end of time. - 1969, “N.I.B.”, in John Osbourne (lyrics), Black...
7. Used in phrasal verbs: lead off, lead on, lead out, lead to (“be the cause of, bring about”), lead up, lead up to.
8. Misspelling of led.

Verb Entry 5

1. To cover, fill, or affect with lead.
   • continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle.
2. To place leads between the lines of.
   • to lead a page
   • leaded matter

Verb alt of, misspelling

1. Misspelling of led.

Wikipedia

Lead