leech-gaiters 
leech-gaiters (lech'ga"terz), n. pi. Closely 
woven gaiters worn as a protection from land- 
leeches in Ceylon. 
The coffee planters, who live among these pests, are 
obliged to envelop their legs in leech-natters. 
Sir J. E. Tmnent, Ceylon, p. 303. 
leeching (le'ching), . [< ME. lechynge, lech- 
yiifj, < AS. l&cung, usually Idcnung, liiicnung, 
leeching, < lacnian, Kecnan, leech: see leech 1 , 
.] Medical treatment. 
He langurd with lechyng long tynie after. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 10223. 
leech-line (leeh'Hn), . A rope fastened to the 
leech of a square sail, by which the sail is hauled 
close up to the yard. Also leach-line. 
leechmant (lech'man), . [Also Icachman; < 
ME. lecheman; < leech 1 + man.] A physician; 
a leech. 
Oft have I scene an easie soone-curde ill, 
By times processe, surpasse the leachman's skill. 
Remedy of Lone, a Poem, 1602, B2, apud CapelL (Nares.) 
leech-rope (lech'rop), n. That part of the bolt- 
rope of a sail which is sewed to the leeches. 
lee-clue (le'klo), v. t. [< lee 1 + clue, t>.] To 
clue up the lee side of (a sail). 
leed 1 !, " An obsolete form of lead 1 . 
leed' 2 t, n. and v. An obsolete form of leacP. 
Ieed 3 t, An obsolete form of lead 3 . 
leedet, See lede 3 . 
leef 1 t, n. An obsolete spelling of leaf. 
leef 2 t, a. An obsolete spelling of lief. 
leefang (le'fang), n. [Appar. < lee 1 + fang.'] 
Naut., a rope passed through the clue of a jib, to 
hold it amidships while lacing on the bonnet. 
leefu'lane (le'fp-lan), adv. [< *leeful (< lee 1 + 
-fill) + lane, lane: see leelane.~] Same as lee- 
lane. [Scotch.] 
lee-gage (le'gaj), n. Naut., with reference to 
another vessel, a situation of less exposure to 
the wind; hence, the sheltered or safe side: 
opposed to weather-gage. See gage 2 , 3. 
leek (lek), n. [< ME. leek, < AS. ledc, a leek, 
an herb, = D. look = LG. look = OHG. louh, 
MHG. louch, G. lauch = Icel. laukr = Dan. log 
= Sw. Idh, leek. Cf. OBulg. luTcu = Serv. Ink 
= Pol. luk (barred I) = Buss, luku = Lith. 
lukai = Finn, lauklia, leek, all of Teut. origin. 
The word occurs now unfelt as the final ele- 
ment in gar- 
lic, but prob. 
not, as usually 
stated, in char- 
lock, hemlock, 
or barley 1 : see 
these words.] 
One of several 
species of the 
genus AlUum; 
especially, a bi- 
ennial culinary 
plant, AlUum 
Porrum. It is dis- 
tinguished from the 
onion (A. Cepa) by 
having a cylin- 
drical base instead 
of a spherical or flat- 
tened bulb, by its 
flat leaves, and by its 
milder flavor. It is 
stimulant and diu- 
retic. The cultivat- 
ed leek is believed 
to have originated 
from the wild leek, 
A. Ampeloprasuin, 
found in southern 
Europe and west- 
ern Asia. It was 
probably cultivat- 
ed in ancient Egypt, and may have been the plant called 
by that name in Numbers xi. 5. According to Pliny, it 
was made prominent among the Romans by Nero ; and 
at the present day it is still in extensive use. The leek 
has long been the national badge ol the Welsh, tradi- 
tionally said to have been adopted by direction of St. 
David, in celebration of a victory of King Arthur over 
the Saxons. The crow-leek is the bluebell squill, Scitta 
nutans; the sand-leek, Allium Scorodoprasum, found in 
sandy places in the middle latitudes of Europe; the stone- 
leek, A. Jistulosum, known as Welsh onion; the vine-leek, 
A. Ampeloprasum ; the wild leek, A. Ampelopraswm, A. 
urginum, and, in America, A. tricoccum. (See also house- 
leek.) 
He is come to me, and prings me pread and salt yester- 
day, look you, and bid me eat my leek. 
Shak., Hen. V., v. 1. 10. 
Leek to the Welsh, to Dutchmen butter 's dear. 
Gay, Shepherd's Week, Monday, 1. 83. 
Not worth a leek, of no value. Compare not worth a 
cress or curse, under curses. 
Thou flashes not north a leke, rise & go thi ways. 
Hob. of Brunne, p. 204. 
To eat the leek, to make a retraction or submit to hu- 
miliating treatment from compulsion : in allusion to the 
Leek {Allium tricoccum.) 
i, flowering plant; z, the plant with the 
leaves developed; a, flower; *, fruit; c. 
3398 
scene between Fluellen and Pistol in Shakspere's "Henry 
V." See the quotation from Shakgpere, above. 
Here is a case in which they were made to eat the leek. 
Ashton, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, II. 231. 
leeket, An obsolete dialectal form of like%. 
leek-green (lek'gren), n. A shade of green re- 
sembling that of the leaves of the leek; a dull- 
bluish green. 
leelt, a. An obsolete spelling of leal. 
leelane (le'lan), adv. [Cf. leefu'lane, and lee- 
somf-lane (under leesome)."] All alone; quite 
solitary. [Scotch.] 
ieelang (le'lang), a. A Scotch form of live- 
long. 
The lovers rade the lee-tang night, 
And safe got on their way. 
Bonny Baby Livingston (Child's Ballads, IV. 44). 
leemt, . See learn 1 . 
Leeman's Act. See act. 
leemer (le'mer), n. [Origin obscure.] A ripe 
nut. [Prov. Eng.] 
leep 1 !. An obsolete strong preterit of leap 1 . 
leep 2 , n. See leap 2 . 
leer 1 (ler), n. [< ME. lere, lire, lure, < AS. Medr, 
the cheek, face, = OS. hlior, hlier, hleor, Mear, 
= OFries. lerhe = MD. Here = MLG. ler = Icel. 
hlyr, the cheek. Cf. lire 2 .] If. The cheek; more 
generally, the face. 
A loueliche lady of lere in lynnen y-clothid, 
Cam doun fro that castel and calde me by name. 
Piers Plowman (C), ii. 8. 
No, ladie (quoth the earle with a loud voice, and the 
tears trilling down his leeres), saie not so. 
Holinshed, Descrip. of Ireland, an. 1546. 
2f. Complexion; hue; color. 
He hath a Rosalind of a better leer than you. 
Shak., As you Like it, iv. 1. 67. 
3f. Flesh; skin. 
He dide next his whyte lere 
Of cloth of lake fyn and clere 
A breech and eek a sherte. 
Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 1. 146. 
4. The flank or loin. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
leer 2 (ler), v. [Origin appar. 'make a face,' < 
leer 1 , n., face. Cf. lower 1 ."} I. intrans. To look 
obliquely or askant ; now, especially, to look 
obliquely with significance ; cast a look expres- 
sive of some passion, as contempt, malignity, 
etc., especially a sly or amorous look. 
As a Wolf, that hunting for a pray, 
And having stoln (at last) some Lamb away, 
Fives with down-hanging head, and leereth back 
Whether the Mastife doo pursue his track. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. B. 
You leer upon me, do you? there's an eye 
Wounds like a leaden sword. 
Shak., L. L. L., v. 2. 480. 
I met him once in the streets, but he leered away on the 
other side, as one ashamed of what he had done. 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, i. 117. 
As the priest, above his book 
Leering at his neighbour's wife. 
Tennyson, Vision of Sin. 
II. trans. 1. To give an oblique glance or 
leer with. 
Cocking his head, leering his eye, and working his black 
tongue, he [a parrot] edged himself sidelong. 
D. Jerrold, Men of Character, Matthew Clear, ii. 
2. To affect by leering, in a way specified. 
To gild a face with smiles, and leer a man to ruin. 
Dryden, Spanish Friar. 
leer 2 (ler), . [< leer 2 , .] A significant side 
glance; a glance expressive of some passion, 
as malignity, amorousness, etc. ; an arch or af- 
fected glance or cast of countenance. 
With jealous leer malign 
Eyed them askance. Milton, P. L., iv. 008. 
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer. 
Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 201. 
leer s t, Iear 2 t (ler), a. [Early mod. E. also lere; 
< ME. *lere, /or,_< AS. *losrc (in deriv. larrness, 
emptiness), *gelair (> ME. liter), empty, = OS. 
lari = MD. laer, D. laar = OHG. Idr'i, MHG. 
lare, lair, lere, ler, G. leer, empty.] 1. Empty; 
unoccupied. 
But at the first encounter downe he lay, 
The horse runs leere away without the man. 
Sir J. Harington, tr. of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, rvi. 64. 
Hence 2. Frivolous; trifling. 
Laugh on, sir, 111 to bed and sleep, 
And dream away the vapour of love, if the house 
And your leer drunkards let me. 
B. Jonson, New Inn, iv. 3. 
He . . . never speaks without a lere sense. 
Butler, Remains. 
Ieer 4 t (ler), a. [Prob. a particular use of leer 3 , 
empty (cf. left 1 , orig. 'weak'); otherwise a 
form equiv. to D. laager, lower, left.] Left. 
With his hat turned up o' the leer side too. 
B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, i. 2. 
leer 5 (ler), , A dialectal variant of lire?. 
leet 
leer 6 (ler), . [Origin obscure.] Tape, braid, 
binding, etc. [Obsolete or prov. Eng.] 
In steede of silkes, I will weare sackcloth : for Owches 
and Bracelletes, Leere and Caddys. 
Lyly, Euphues, Anat of Wit, p. 79. 
leer 7 (ler), . [Also lear and Her, and perhaps 
merely another spelling of Her 1 as pronounced 
dialectally le'er.] In glass-mamif., an anneal- 
ing-furnace in which glassware is slowly cooled 
and annealed. It consists usually of a long chamber 
with a furnace at one end and having either a track of rails 
over which the glass is moved on cars through the furnace 
or a traveling apron for the same purpose. 
leernesst, [Early mod. E. Icrcness, < ME. 
lereness, < AS. lierness, emptiness, < "liere, emp- 
ty: see Ieer 3 .~] Emptiness. Batman, 1582. (Hal- 
liwell.) 
leer-pan (ler'pan), n. A shallow iron tray in 
which are placed objects to be annealed in a 
furnace. See leer'!. 
Leersia (le-er'si-a), n. [NL. (Swartz, 1788), 
named after Johann Daniel Leers, a German 
druggist and botanist.] A genus of grasses 
of the tribe Orysece, or rice family, it is closely 
related to the genus Oryza (to which rice belongs), but 
differs from it in having only two glumes instead of four, 
and often less than six stamens. The plants are marsh- 
grasses with narrow leaves which often nave sharp, rough- 
ened edges that cut the flesh of those who pass through 
places where they grow. Five species are known, all of 
which occur in America, but one "of them, L. oryzoides, is 
also found in Europe and temperate Asia, and another, L. 
Alexandra, is widely distributed throughout the tropical 
regions of the Old World. Three species occur in the 
United States, and are known as white-grass, especially L. 
Virginica. L. oryzoides is the rice cut-grass, and L. lenti- 
eularis the fly-catch grass. The name Leersia was given 
six years earlier to a genus of mosses, on which account it 
has been proposed to restore to the grass genus the name 
Homalocenchrus, proposed by Mieg in 1768. 
leerspool (ler'spol), . [< leer 3 + spool.] A 
cane or reed. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
leery (ler'i), a. [< leer 2 + -y 1 ."] Knowing; 
wide-awake; sly: as, the leery man. [Thieves' 
slang.] 
lees 1 , n. pi. See lee&. 
Iees 2 t, n. A Middle English form of leash. 
Iees 3 t, a. and n. See lease 3 . 
leeseH (lez), v. t. [< ME. leesen, lesen (pret. 
lees, les, pi. loren, pp. lorn, lore; < AS. *le6san 
(pret. "leas, pi. *luron, pp. *loren), in comp. be- 
ledsan, for-ledsan = OS. far-liosan, for-leosan 
= OFries. for-liasa, ur-liasa = D. verlieeen = 
OHG. for-liosan, for-liasan, MHG. ver-liesen, 
ver-lieren, G. ver-lieren = Dan. for-lise = Sw. 
for-lisa = Goth, fra-liusan, lose ; akin to L. luere 
= Gr. Jivetv, loose, loosen, set free. See lease 3 , 
loose, lose 1 , loss. The verb leese is now obs., 
being superseded by lose, which is in part a var. 
of leese, and in part from a secondary form: 
see lose 1 .] To lose. 
Suche hath ther bene, and are, that getithe grace, 
and leese itt soone whan thei it haue atcheuyd. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 73. 
By the way his wyfe Creusa he les. 
Chaucer, Good Women, 1. 945. 
Take heed you leese it not, signior, ere you come there ; 
preserve it. 
B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, v. 1. 
Ieese 2 t, v. t. [ME. leesen, < L. laisus, pp. of lae- 
dere, hurt.] To hurt. 
The princis of the puple songhten to leese him. 
Wyclif, Luke xix. 47. 
Ieese 3 t, A Middle English form of lease 6 , 
leash. 
leesingt, A Middle English form of leasing 3 . 
leesome (le'sum), a. A dialectal form of lief- 
some Leesome-lane [confused with leelane], alone ; all 
by one's self. [Scotch.] 
leet 1 (let), n. [Cf. lathe 3 , latlft, < AS. lieth, a 
territorial division : see lathe 3 . ] 1 . An ancient 
English court ; originally, the assembly of the 
men of a township for administering the law of 
the community. See conrt-leet. 
M. Lambert seemeth to be of the opinion that the leets 
of our time doo yeeld some shadow of the politike insti- 
tution of Alfred. Holinshed, Descrip. of England, ii. 4. 
Who has a breast so pure, 
But some uncleanly apprehensions 
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit 
With meditations lawful ? 
Shak., Othello, iii. 3. 140. 
2. The district subject to the jurisdiction of a 
court-test. 
In their renewal of this system the Commons seem to 
make sheriffs in their leets answer for the provincial synod. 
R. W. Dixon, Hist. Church of Eng., iii. 
3. The day on which a court-leet was held ; 
also, the right to hold such a court, which in 
later times could be granted to a baron. Grand 
leet, the chief assembly. 
In the ijrand-leets and solemn elections of magistrates, 
every man had not prerogative alike. 
Holland, tr. of Livy, p. 25. 
