Lead \Lead\ (l[e^]d), n. [OE. led, leed, lead, AS. le['a]d; akin to D. lood, MHG. l[=o]t, G. loth plummet, sounding lead, small weight, Sw. & Dan. lod. [root]123.] 1. (Chem.) One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished. It is both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets, etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible (melting point 327.5[deg] C), forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82. Atomic weight, 207.2. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide.
2. An article made of lead or an alloy of lead; as: (a) A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea. (b) (Print.) A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing. (c) Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs; hence, pl., a roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top. --Bacon
3. A small cylinder of black lead or graphite, used in pencils.
{Black lead}, graphite or plumbago; -- so called from its leadlike appearance and streak. [Colloq.]
{Coasting lead}, a sounding lead intermediate in weight between a hand lead and deep-sea lead.
{Deep-sea lead}, the heaviest of sounding leads, used in water exceeding a hundred fathoms in depth. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
{Hand lead}, a small lead use for sounding in shallow water.
{Krems lead}, {Kremnitz lead} [so called from Krems or Kremnitz, in Austria], a pure variety of white lead, formed into tablets, and called also {Krems white}, or {Kremnitz white}, and {Vienna white}.
{Lead arming}, tallow put in the hollow of a sounding lead. See {To arm the lead} (below).
{Lead colic}. See under {Colic}.
{Lead color}, a deep bluish gray color, like tarnished lead.
{Lead glance}. (Min.) Same as {Galena}.
{Lead line} (a) (Med.) A dark line along the gums produced by a deposit of metallic lead, due to lead poisoning. (b) (Naut.) A sounding line.
{Lead mill}, a leaden polishing wheel, used by lapidaries.
{Lead ocher} (Min.), a massive sulphur-yellow oxide of lead. Same as {Massicot}.
{Lead pencil}, a pencil of which the marking material is graphite (black lead).
{Lead plant} (Bot.), a low leguminous plant, genus {Amorpha} ({Amorpha canescens}), found in the Northwestern United States, where its presence is supposed to indicate lead ore. --Gray.
{Lead tree}. (a) (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous tree, {Leuc[ae]na glauca}; -- probably so called from the glaucous color of the foliage. (b) (Chem.) Lead crystallized in arborescent forms from a solution of some lead salt, as by suspending a strip of zinc in lead acetate.
{Mock lead}, a miner's term for blende.
{Red lead}, a scarlet, crystalline, granular powder, consisting of minium when pure, but commonly containing several of the oxides of lead. It is used as a paint or cement and also as an ingredient of flint glass.
{Red lead ore} (Min.), crocoite.
{Sugar of lead}, acetate of lead.
{To arm the lead}, to fill the hollow in the bottom of a sounding lead with tallow in order to discover the nature of the bottom by the substances adhering. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
{To cast the lead}, or {To heave the lead}, to cast the sounding lead for ascertaining the depth of water.
{White lead}, hydrated carbonate of lead, obtained as a white, amorphous powder, and much used as an ingredient of white paint.
Lead \Lead\ (l[e^]d), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Leaded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Leading}.] 1. To cover, fill, or affect with lead; as, continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle.
2. (Print.) To place leads between the lines of; as, to lead a page; leaded matter.
Lead \Lead\ (l[=e]d), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Led} (l[e^]d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Leading}.] [OE. leden, AS. l[=ae]dan (akin to OS. l[=e]dian, D. leiden, G. leiten, Icel. le[imac][eth]a, Sw. leda, Dan. lede), properly a causative fr. AS. li[eth]an to go; akin to OHG. l[imac]dan, Icel. l[imac][eth]a, Goth. lei[thorn]an (in comp.). Cf. {Lode}, {Loath}.] 1. To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact or connection; as, a father leads a child; a jockey leads a horse with a halter; a dog leads a blind man.
If a blind man lead a blind man, both fall down in the ditch. --Wyclif (Matt. xv. 14.)
They thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill. --Luke iv. 29.
In thy right hand lead with thee The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty. --Milton.
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, esp. by going with or going in advance of. Hence, figuratively: To direct; to counsel; to instruct; as, to lead a traveler; to lead a pupil.
The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way. --Ex. xiii. 21.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. --Ps. xxiii. 2.
This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask. Content, though blind, had I no better guide. --Milton.
3. To conduct or direct with authority; to have direction or charge of; as, to lead an army, an exploring party, or a search; to lead a political party.
Christ took not upon him flesh and blood that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies, or possess places. --South.
4. To go or to be in advance of; to precede; hence, to be foremost or chief among; as, the big sloop led the fleet of yachts; the Guards led the attack; Demosthenes leads the orators of all ages.
As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way. --Fairfax.
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. --Leigh Hunt.
5. To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure; as, to lead one to espouse a righteous cause.
He was driven by the necessities of the times, more than led by his own disposition, to any rigor of actions. --Eikon Basilike.
Silly women, laden with sins, led away by divers lusts. --2 Tim. iii. 6 (Rev. Ver.).
6. To guide or conduct one's self 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).
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. --1 Tim. ii. 2.
Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse A life that leads melodious days. --Tennyson.
You remember . . . the life he used to lead his wife and daughter. --Dickens.
7. (Cards & Dominoes) To begin a game, round, or trick, with; as, to lead trumps; the double five was led.
{To lead astray}, to guide in a wrong way, or into error; to seduce from truth or rectitude.
{To lead captive}, to carry or bring into captivity.
{To lead the way}, to show the way by going in front; to act as guide. --Goldsmith.
Lead \Lead\, v. i. 1. To guide or conduct, as by accompanying, going before, showing, influencing, directing with authority, etc.; to have precedence or pre["e]minence; to be first or chief; -- used in most of the senses of lead, v. t.
2. To tend or reach in a certain direction, or to a certain place; as, the path leads to the mill; gambling leads to other vices.
The mountain foot that leads towards Mantua. --Shak.
{To lead off} or {To lead out}, to go first; to begin; as, Mickey Mantle led off in the fifth inning of the game. [1913 Webster +PJC]
Lead \Lead\, n. 1. The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction; as, 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. --Burke.
2. Precedence; advance position; also, the measure of precedence; as, the white horse had the lead; a lead of a boat's length, or of half a second.
3. (Cards & Dominoes) The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played; as, your partner has the lead.
4. An open way in an ice field. --Kane.
5. (Mining) A lode.
6. (Naut.) The course of a rope from end to end.
7. (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.
Note: When used alone it means outside lead, or lead for the admission of steam. Inside lead refers to the release or exhaust.
8. (Civil Engineering) the distance of haul, as from a cutting to an embankment.
9. (Horology) The action of a tooth, as a tooth of a wheel, in impelling another tooth or a pallet. --Saunier.
10. (Music.) (a) The announcement by one voice part of a theme to be repeated by the other parts. (b) A mark or a short passage in one voice part, as of a canon, serving as a cue for the entrance of others. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
11. In an internal-combustion engine, the distance, measured in actual length of piston stroke or the corresponding angular displacement of the crank, of the piston from the end of the compression stroke when ignition takes place; -- called in full
{lead of the ignition}. When ignition takes place during the working stroke the corresponding distance from the commencement of the stroke is called
{negative lead}. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
12. (Mach.) The excess above a right angle in the angle between two consecutive cranks, as of a compound engine, on the same shaft. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
13. (Mach.) In spiral screw threads, worm wheels, or the like, the amount of advance of any point in the spiral for a complete turn. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
14. (Elec.) (a) The angle between the line joining the brushes of a continuous-current dynamo and the diameter symmetrical between the poles. (b) The advance of the current phase in an alternating circuit beyond that of the electromotive force producing it. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
15. (Theat.) A role for a leading man or leading woman; also, one who plays such a role. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
16. The first story in a newspaper or broadcast news program. [PJC]
17. an electrical conductor, typically as an insulated wire or cable, connecting an electrical device to another device or to a power source, such as a conductor conveying electricity from a dynamo. [PJC]
18. (Baseball) the distance a runner on base advances from one base toward the next before the pitch; as, the long lead he usually takes tends to distract the pitchers. [PJC]
{Lead angle} (Steam Engine), the angle which the crank maker with the line of centers, in approaching it, at the instant when the valve opens to admit steam.
{Lead screw} (Mach.), the main longitudinal screw of a lathe, which gives the feed motion to the carriage.
Popov, a judge who is a member of neither leading faction, was chosen to lead a new government after strikes and protests forced Socialist Premier Andrei Lukanov and his government of former Communists to quit late last month.
In Washington, the Marine Corps said the Huey was one of two conducting a navigation training exercise and that the lead helicopter crashed.
Stanley Chesley, the lead lawyer for the residents, has said lawyers expect the monitoring will last 30 to 40 years and track such things as lung cancer and kidney diseases usually associated with uranium pollution.
The markets attach particular weight to the Social Democrats' policies because of their strong lead in opinion polls.
Swallowing the berries can lead to diarrhea, vomiting and depression of the central nervous system, the Poison Control Center says.
There are those who hope Reagan's fondness for his old vocation will lead him back to the screen.
Cominco Ltd., one of the world's largest producers of zinc and lead, said it is reducing zinc output 25% at its smelter in Trail, British Columbia, for 10 weeks of maintenance work.
Although relaxations in rules are on the way, at present societies cannot lend for business purposes. This can lead to difficult decisions in dealing with sole traders.
Republican George Bush said today he is unperturbed by polls that give likely Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis a double-digit lead, adding that "I like fighting back."
But she said she might lead a seminar or deliver an occasional lecture.
'Confrontation with the army will lead to the break-up of the armed forces, which are one of the Algerian people's achievements.'
Plant Extract Studied As Tick Repellent - SYRUPY OIL, similar to myrrh, from the bark of a common African plant may lead to a better tick repellent.
At the ceremony at Hradcany Castle, the seat of the president, Calfa pledged to help lead Czechoslovakia out of the debris of the Communist legacy, recalling the democratic tradition that prevailed before Communist rule.
Mikhail Gorbachev's meeting with South Korea's president in San Francisco next week could eventually lead to diplomatic relations between the two nations and unification of Korea, a scholar says.
All of the comments came in advance of a Fort Worth Star-Telegram poll, released late Tuesday night, that showed Williams with a 45-41 percent lead in a survey that has a 3 percent margin of error.
Mongolia, ruled by Communists since 1921 and long a client of the Soviet Union, has cautiously followed the Soviet lead in embracing "perestroika," or reform, but apparently not quickly enough for some of its citizens.
The rulings, if upheld, could lead to punitive duties on the imports, which were valued at more than $1.3 billion in 1988.
Mr Hamilton said a number of respondents had argued this would be unjust and might lead a company to abandon a practice that was later found not to be against the public interest.
This could lead to labor unrest in Chile," Mr. Demler said.
"I'm going to introduce it sometime at my convenience." Rep. Rostenkowski wants the slower approach because he fears that a rush for tax cuts could lead to a big plan that isn't fully paid for and increases the budget deficit.
Moscow wants IMF endorsement of its credentials as a pro-reform government, while the Fund is seeking to justify its position as lead manager in helping Russia remake its economy in the capitalist mould. Reaching agreement will not be easy.
Initially they poured port wine into three lead crystal decanters and over the next four months periodically tested the wine for lead levels.
Initially they poured port wine into three lead crystal decanters and over the next four months periodically tested the wine for lead levels.
Merrill Lynch & Co. will be lead manager for the issue, which is due to be priced Tuesday.
At the Utah gathering, tribal leaders said they hope their alliance will lead to a summit with President Bush where concerns over federal encroachment into tribal sovereignty could be discussed.
But KKR's plan for RJR probably would lead to the sale of RJR's tobacco business.
He and Mr Charles Pasqua lead the two thirds of the RPR who say 'No' to Maastricht and tried three years ago to oust the moderately pro-treaty Mr Chirac.
Kealey said the research also could lead to a more effective depilatory for removing unwanted hair.
There were indications that the drought-induced slaughter of 1991 could lead to reduced production this year. The report says significant cost savings of about 30 per cent were made during the year on freight costs to North America.
A civil rights leader indicated today that an agreement was near that would lead him to call off protests during next week's PGA Championship at a heretofore all-white country club.