lead
IPA: ɫˈɛd
noun
- (uncountable) 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).
- (countable, nautical) A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or (dated) to estimate velocity in knots.
- A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
- (uncountable, typography) 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.
- (countable) A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
- (countable) A thin cylinder of graphite used in pencils.
- (slang) bullets; ammunition.
- (medicine, in the plural) X-ray protective clothing lined with lead.
- (countable) The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction, course
- (countable) 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.
- (UK, countable) An insulated metallic wire for electrical devices and equipment.
- (baseball) The situation where a runner steps away from a base while waiting for the pitch to be thrown.
- (uncountable, card games, dominoes) The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played
- (acting, theater) The main role in a play or film; the lead role.
- (acting) The actor who plays the main role; lead actor.
- (business) The person in charge of a project or a work shift etc.
- (countable) A channel of open water in an ice field.
- (countable, mining) A lode.
- (nautical) The course of a rope from end to end.
- A rope, leather strap, or similar device with which to lead an animal; a leash
- In a steam engine, the width of port opening which is uncovered by the valve, for the admission or release of steam, at the instant when the piston is at end of its stroke.
- (civil engineering) The distance of haul, as from a cutting to an embankment.
- (horology) The action of a tooth, such as a tooth of a wheel, in impelling another tooth or a pallet.
- Hypothesis that has not been pursued
- Information obtained by a detective or police officer that allows him or her to discover further details about a crime or incident.
- (marketing) Potential opportunity for a sale or transaction, a potential customer.
- Information obtained by a news reporter about an issue or subject that allows him or her to discover more details.
- (curling) The player who throws the first two rocks for a team.
- (newspapers) A teaser; a lead-in; the start of a newspaper column, telling who, what, when, where, why and how. (Sometimes spelled as lede for this usage to avoid ambiguity.)
- An important news story that appears on the front page of a newspaper or at the beginning of a news broadcast
- (engineering) The axial distance a screw thread travels in one revolution. It is equal to the pitch times the number of starts.
- (music) In a barbershop quartet, the person who sings the melody, usually the second tenor
- (music) The announcement by one voice part of a theme to be repeated by the other parts.
- (music) A mark or a short passage in one voice part, as of a canon, serving as a cue for the entrance of others.
- (engineering) The excess above a right angle in the angle between two consecutive cranks, as of a compound engine, on the same shaft.
- (electrical) The angle between the line joining the brushes of a continuous-current dynamo and the diameter symmetrical between the poles.
- (electrical) The advance of the current phase in an alternating circuit beyond that of the electromotive force producing it.
verb
- (transitive) To cover, fill, or affect with lead.
- (transitive, printing, historical) To place leads between the lines of.
- (heading, transitive) To guide or conduct.
- To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection.
- 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 lead a pupil; to guide somebody somewhere or to bring somebody somewhere by means of instructions.
- (figuratively): To direct; to counsel; to instruct
- To conduct or direct with authority; to have direction or charge of; to command, especially a military or business unit.
- To guide or conduct oneself in, through, or along (a certain course); hence, to proceed in the way of; to follow the path or course of; to pass; to spend. Also, to cause (one) to proceed or follow in (a certain course).
- (intransitive) 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.
- (transitive) To go or to be in advance of; to precede; hence, to be foremost or chief among.
- (intransitive) To lead off or out, to go first; to begin.
- (intransitive) To be more advanced in technology or business than others.
- (heading, sports)
- (transitive, card games, dominoes) To begin a game, round, or trick, with
- (intransitive) To be ahead of others, e.g., in a race.
- (intransitive) To have the highest interim score in a game.
- (baseball) To step off base and move towards the next base.
- (shooting) To aim in front of a moving target, in order that the shot may hit the target as it passes.
- (transitive, climbing) Lead climb.
- (transitive) To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure
- (intransitive) To tend or reach in a certain direction, or to a certain place.
- To produce (with to).
- (transitive) To live or experience (a particular way of life).
- Misspelling of led.
adjective
- (not comparable) Foremost.
- Main, principal, primary, first, chief, foremost.
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Examples of "lead" in Sentences
- Wonder if he ever heard the term "lead by example?"
- Newport quickly retook the lead in the top of the seventh.
- In the top of the inning, Venezuela rallied to take the lead.
- The lobby group is leading the campaign to reopen the corridor.
- LEAD: _White lead, acetate of lead_ (sugar of lead), _red lead_.
- The details of the murder lead to a group of overt anti terrorists.
- A vertical tube leads from this chamber to the top of the percolator.
- A spiral stairway leads to the observatory at the top of the structure.
- Charles fronted the group as the lead singer and multi instrumentalist.
- The lead is the most accessible part of the article as it is at the top.
- It could at least do with an intelligible definition at the top of the Lead.
- This is over the top as to condemning the subject in the lead of the article.
- Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
- In one Liberian version of the Lord's Prayer, the phrase "lead us not into temptation" was rendered "Do not catch us when we sin."
- Apparently journalists changed the spelling of lead to lede years ago after people consistently got it confused with pencil lead vs. follow my lead.
- One tries in every mode to dispose of his lead to the company, asking question after question, to which you must answer without introducing the words _lead_, _I_, _yes_, or _no_.