Every man is not of a constitution to leap a gult for the saving of his country. L'Estrange. As one condenin'd to leap a precipice, Who sees before his eyes the depth below, Stops short. Dryden's Spanish Fryar. She dares pursue, if they dare lead: As their example still prevails, She tempts the stream, or leaps the pales. Prior. 2. To compress, as beasts. Too soon they inust not feel the sting of love: Let him not leap the cow. Dryden's Georg. LEAP. n. s. [from the verb.] 1. Bound; jump; act of icaping. 2. Space passed by leaping. 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? 3. Sudden transition. L'Estrange. Wickedness comes on by degrees, as well as virtue; and sudden leaps from one extreme to L'Estrange. another are unnatural. 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. 5. Embrace of animals. L'Estrange. How she cheats her bellowing lover's eye; The rushing leap, the doubtful progeny. Dryden. 6. Hazard, or effect of leaping. Methinks, it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon. Shakspeare. You take a precipice for no leap of danger, And woo your own destruction. Shakspeare. Behold that dreadful downfal of a rock," Where yon old fisher views the waves from high! 'Tis the convenient leap I mean to try. Dryden. LEAP-FROG.. s. [leap and frog.] A play of children, in which they imitate the jump of frogs. If I could win a lady at leap-freg, I should quickly leap into a wife." Shakspeare's Henry v. LEAP YEAR. N. 5. Leap-year or bissextile is every fourth year, and so called from its leaping a day more that year than in a common year: so that the common year has 365 days, but the leap-year 366; and then February hath 29 days, which in common years hath but 28. To find the leap-year you have this rule: Divide by 4; what's left shall be For leap-year 0: for past 1, 2, 3. Harris. The reason of the name of leap-year is, that a day of the week is missed; as, if on one year the first of March be on Monday, it will on the next year be on Tuesday, but on leap-year it will leap to Wednesday. That the sun consisteth of 365 days and almost six hours, wanting eleven minutes; which six hours omitted will, in process of time, largely deprave the compute; and this is the occasion of the bissextile or leap-year. Brown. To LEARN. v. a. [leonnian, Saxon.] 1. To gain the knowledge or skill of. Mattber. Learn a parable of the g-tree. He, in a shorter time than was thought possible, learned both to speak and write the Arabian tongue. Knolles. Learn, wretches! learn the motions of the mind, And the great moral end of human kind. Dryd. You may rely upon my tender care, To keep him far from perils of ambition: All he can learn of me, will be to weep! Philips. 2. To teach. [It is observable, that in many of the European languages, the same word signifies to learn and to teach; to gain or impart knowledge.] This sense is now obsolete. He would learn The lion stoop to him in lowly wise, Spenser's Fairy Queen. Hast thou not learn'd me how To make perfumes? Shakspeare's Cymbeline. To LEARN. V. n. To take pattern: with of: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meck and lowly. Mattber. 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 Natural History. LEARNED. adj. [from learn.] 1. Versed in science and literature. It is indifferent to the matter in hand, which way the learned shall determine of it. Locke. Some by old words to fame have made pie tence: Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style, Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile. Foper Swift The learned met with free approach, Although they came not in a coach. The best account is given of them by their own authors: but I trust more to the table of the learned bishop of Bath. Arbuthnot on Goins. 2. Skilled; skilful, knowing: with in. Though train'd in arms, and learned in martial arts, Thou chusest not to conquer men but hearts. Granville 3. Skilled in scholastick, as distinct from other knowledge. Till a man can judge whether they be truths or no, his' understanding is but little improved : and thus men of much reading are greatly learned, but may be little knowing. Locke LEARNEDLY.adv. [from learned.] With knowledge; with skill. The apostle seemed in his eyes but learnedly mad. Much He spoke, and learned'y, for life; but all Was either pitied in him, or forgotten. Shaks. Ev'ry coxcemb swears as learnedly as they. LEARNING. n. s. [from learn.] Swift. 1. Literature; skill in languages or sciences; generally scholastick know. ledge. Learning hath its infancy, when it is almost childish; then its youth, when luxuriant and juvenile; then its strength of years, when solid; and, lastly, its old age, when dry and exhaust. Bacon. To tongue or pudding thou hast no pretence, Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense. Prior. 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 2. Skill in any thing good or bad. learning of the Greeks. Bentley A art of contradiction by way of scorn, a Learning wherewith we were long sithence forewarned, that the miserable times whereunto we are tallen should abound. Hooker. LEARNER. H. 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. Not can a learner work so cheap as a skilful practised artist can. Graunt's Bills of Mortality. LEASE. n. s. [laisser, French. Spelman.] 1. A contract by which, in consideration. of some payment, a temporary possession is granted of houses or lands. Way, cousin, wer't thou regent of the world, It were a shame to let this land by lease. Shaksp. Lords of the world have but for life their lease, And that too, if the lessor please, must cease. Denbam. I have heard a man talk with contempt of bishops' leases, as on a worse foot than the rest of his estate. 2. Any tenure. Our high-plac'd Macbeth Shall live the lease of nature. Savift. Shakspeare. Milton. 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. LEASER. n. s. [from lease.] Gleaner; gatherer after the reaper. There was no office which a man from EngJand might not have; and I looked upon all who were born here as only in the condition of leasers and gleaners. LEASH. n. s. [lesse, French; letse, Dutch; laccio, Italian.] Savift. 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 fawaing greyhound in the leash, To let him slip at will. What I was, I am; Shakspeare. More straining on, for plucking back; not following My leash unwillingly. 2. A tierce; three. Shaksp. Winter's Tale. I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers, and can call them all by their Christian names. Shak. Some thought when he did gabble Ta'ad heard three labourers of Babel, dull devils. Hudibras. Dennis' 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. 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. Prior. Trading free shall thrive again, Nor leasings lewd affright the swain. Gry. LEAST. adj. the superlative of little.[\xy, Saxon. 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; smailest. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies shewed to thy servant. Genesis. A man can no more have a positive idea of the greatest than he has of the least space. Loche. LEAST. adv. In the lowe t degree; in a degree below others; less than any other 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 permission 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 use i observations be at least some part of the subject of your conversation. Watts. LE'ASY. adj. [This word seems formed from the same root with loisir, French, or loose.] Flimsy; of weak texture. Not in use. He never leaveth, while the sense itself be 1. Dressed hides of animals. He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. 2 Kings. And if two boots keep out the weather, What need you have two hides of leather? 2. Skin; ironically. Returning sound in limb and wind, Except some leather lost behind. Prior. Swift. 3. It is often used in composition for leathern. The shepherd's homely curds, His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle; Is far beyond a prince's delicacies. Shakspeare. LEATHERCOAT. n. s. [leather and coat.] An apple with a tough rind. There is a dish of leatherceats for you Shaks. LEATHERDRESSER. n. s. [leather and dresser] He who prepares leather; he who manufactures hides for use. He removed to Cure; 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 cheWalton's Angler. LEATHERN. adj. [from leather.] Made of leather. ven. I saw her hand; she has a leathern hand, you A splendid snilling. Philips. LEATHERSELLER. 7. 5. [leather and seller.] He who deals in leather, and vends it. LEATHERY. adj. [from leather.] Resembling leather. Wormius calls this crust a leathery skin. Grew. LEAVE. n. s. lepe, Saxon; from lyfan, to grant.] 1. Grant of liberty; permission; allow ance. By your leave, Ireneus, notwithstanding all this your careful foresight, methinks I see an evil lurk unespied. Evils that take lave, On their departure, most of all shew evil. Shakspeare. A double blessing is a double grace; Suckling. Many stars may be visible in our hemisphere, that are not so at present; and many shall take leave of our horizon, and appear unto southern habitations. Brown. To LEAVE. v. a. pret. I left; I have left. [Of the derivation of this word the etymologists give no satisfactory account.] 1. To quit; to forsake. A man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to is wite. Genesis. If they love lees, and leave the lusty wine, 2. To desert; to abandon. He that is of an unthankful mind, will leave him in danger that delivered him. Ecclesiasticus. 3. To depart from, without action: as, I left things as I found them. When they were departed from him, they left him in great diseases. 2 Chronicles. 4. To have remaining at death. There be of them that have left a name behind them. Ecclesiasticus. 5. Not to leprive of. They still have left me the providence of God, and all the promises of the gospel, and my charity to them too. Taylor. 6. To suffer to remain. If it be done without order, the mind compre hendeth 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. Who those are, to whom this right by descent belongs, he leaves out of the reach of any one to discover from his writings. Spenser. 7. Not to carry away. Locke They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, and left no sustenance for Israel. Judges. He shall eat the fruit of thy cattle; which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil. Deuteronomy. Vastius gave strict commandment, that they should leave behind them unnecessary baggage. Knolles' History. 8. To reject; not to choose. Steele. In all the common incidents of life, I am superiour, I can take or leave. 9. To fix as a token or remembrance. 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. Dryden. Thou shalt not glean thy vineyard; thou shalt kave them for the poor and stranger. Leviticus, 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. 11. To give up; to resign. Tillitson. 11. To permit without interpofition. Whether Esau were a vassal, I leave the reader to judge. Locke. 13. To ce se to do; to desist from. Let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us. 1 Samuel. 14. TO LEAVE of. 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. In propertion as old age came on, he left of fox-hunting. Spectator. 15. TO LEAVE off. To forsake. He began to leave off some of his old acquaint ance, 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. Shaksp. Winter's Tale. You may partake: I have told 'em who you 2. 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. Roscommon. 3. TO LEAVE of. To stop. Wrongs do not leave off there where they begin, But still beget new mischiefs in their course. Daniel. To LEAVE. v. a. [from levy; lever, French.] 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 leaves, 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. Isaiah. LE ́AVEN. n. s. [levain, Fr. levare, Lat.] 1. Ferment mixed with any body to make it light; particularly used of sour dough mixed in a mass of bread. Leviticus. It shall not be baken with leaven. All fermented meats and drinks are easiest digested; and those unfermented, by barm or leaven, 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 LEAVEN. v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To ferment by something mixed. You must tarry the leav'ning. Shaksp Whosoever eateth leavened bread, that soul shall be cut off. Exodus. 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. Bacon Prior. LEAVER. 2. s. [from leave.] One who deserts or forsakes. Let the world rank me in register A master-leaver, and a fugitive. Shakspeare. LEAVES. n. 5. The plural of leaf. Parts fit for the nourishment of man in plants are, seeds, roots, and fruits; for leaves they give no nourishment at all. Bacon's Natural History. 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. Swift. Then who can think we'll quit the place, 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, A garland made on teinples for to wear, LEC Now, near enough: your leavy screens throw And show like those you are. Hammer. Hast thou yet leched the Athenian's eyes With the love juice? Shakspeare. LECHER. ns. [Derived by Skinner from luxure, old French: luxuria is used in the middle ages in the same sense.] A whoremaster. I will now take the leacher; he's at my house; She yields her charms To that fair lecher, the strong god of arms. Pope. To LE CHER. v. n. [from the noun.] io whore. Die for adultery? no. The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly does letcher in my sight. Shakspeare. Gut eats all day, and letchers all the night. LE CHEROUS. adj. [from lecher.] Lewd; Ben Jonson. 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. LE CHEROUSLY. adv. [from lecherous.] Derbam. Lewdly; lustfully. LE CHEROUSNESS. n. s. [from lecherous.] Lewdness. LE CHERY. 2. S. [from lecher.] Lewdness; lust. The rest welter with as little shame in onen lechery, as swine do in the common mire. scham. Against such lewdsters, and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treachery. LECTION. n. s. [lectio, Lat.] A reading; Shakspeare. 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. LECTURE. n. s. [lecture, French.] Watts Logic. 1. A discourse pronounced upon any subject. Mark him, while Dametas reads his rustick lecture unto him, how to feed his beasts before noon, and where to shade them in the extreme heat. Wrangling pedant, Sidney. When in musick we have spent an hour, When letters from Cæsar were given to Rusticus, he refused to open them till the philosopher had done his lectures. Taylor's Holy Living, Virtue the solid good, which tutors should not only read lectures and talk of, but the labour and art of equcation should furnish the mind with, and fasten there. 2. The act or practice of reading; peruLocke. sal. In the lecture of holy scripture, their appre hensions are commonly confined unto the literal sense of the text. Bicken. LED 3. A magisterial reprimand; a pedantick discourse. Addison. Numidia will be blest by Cato's lectures. To LECTURE. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To instruct formaly. 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 lectur. ed on geometry. LECTURER. n. s. [from lecture.] 1. An instructor; a teacher by way of lecture. 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 committee. Clarendon. LECTURESHIP. n. s. [from lecture.] The office of a lecturer. He got a lectureship in town of sixty pounds ayear, where he preached constantly in person. Swift LED, The part. pret. of lead. Then shall they know that I am the Lord your God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen. Ezekiel. The leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed. As in vegetables and animals, so in most other Isaiab. bodies, not propagated by seed, it is the colour we most fix on, and are most led by. Locke. LEDGE. . . leggen, Dutch, to lie.] 1. A row; laver, stratum. 2. The lowest ledge or row should be merely of stone, closely lid, without mortar: a general caution for all parts in building contiguous to board. Wotton 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 Gulliver. on each side. 3. Any prominence, or rising part. Beneath a leage of rocks his fleet he hides, The bending brow above a safe retreat provides. Dryden. LEDHORSE. n. s. [led and horse.] sumpter horse. LEE. n. s. [lie, French.] A 1. Dregs; sediment; refuse: commonly lees. My cloaths, my sex, exchang'd for thee, I'll mingle with the people's wretched fee. Prier. 2. [Sea term; supposed by Skinner from Peau, French.] 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 against the masts and shrowds flat, and lie the wind to come right on her broad may |