422 LEA 
There was no- office which a man from England might not 
have ; and I looked upon all who were born here as only 
in the condition of leafers and gleaners. Swift. 
LE'ASEY POINT, a cape on the welt coaft of the 
county of Lancafter, in the Irilh Sea, north of the ifland 
of Walney. 
LEASH, f. \_lejfe, Fr. letfe, Dut. laccio, Ital.] A leather 
thong, by which a,falconer holds his hawk, or a courfer 
leads his greyhound. Hanmer. 
Holding Corioli in the name of Rome, 
Ev’n like a fawning greyhound in the leajh, 
To let him flip at will. Shakefpeare. 
A band wherewith to tie any thing in general.—The ra- 
vifhed foul, being fhown fuch game, would break thofe 
leafhes that tie hereto the body. Boyle. —A tierce ; three.— 
I am fworn brother to a leajh of drawers, and can call them 
ail by their Chriftian names. Shakefpeare. 
Some thought, when he did gabble, 
Th’ ad heard three labourers of Babel, ^ 
Or Cerberus himfelf pronounce 
A leajh of languages at once. Hudibras. 
To LEASH, v. a. To bind ; to hold in a filing : 
Then fliould the warlike Harry, like himfelf, 
Aflume the port of Mars ; and, at his heels, 
Leajht in like hounds, fliould famine, fword, and.fire. 
Crouch for employment. Shakefpeare's Hairy V. 
LE'ASHING,/ - . The aft of binding, the aft of tying 
together with a leafli; that with which any thing is lealhed. 
LE'ASING,/! [leafe, Sax.] Lies; falfehood.—O ye 
fons of men, how long will ye have fuch pleafure in va¬ 
nity, and feek after leafing P Pfalm iv. 2. 
He amongft ladies would their fortunes read 
Out of their hands, and merry leafngs tell. Hubbard's Talc. 
\_Lcfen, Dut.] The aft of gleaning in a field. 
LE'ASING, J. [from leafej The aft of letting out on 
leafe. 
LE'ASOWES, the name of a villa near Hales Owen in 
Shropfiiire, formerly the feat of Shenftone the poet, and 
at that time famous for natural and artificial beauties. It 
is now in ruins. Thofe who wilh to know what it was 
once are referred to the Britifli Direftory, vol. ii. p 243. 
LEAST, adj. the fuperlative of little: [lcefc, Sax. 
This word Wallis would perfuade us to write left, that it 
may be analogous to lefs ; but furely the profit is not 
worth the change.] Little beyond others ; fmalleft.—I am 
not worthy of the 'leaf of all the mercies flowed to thy 
fervant. Gen. xxxii. 10.—A man can no more have a pofi- 
tive idea of the greateft than he has of the leaf fpace. Locke. 
LEAST, adv. In the loweft degree ; in a degree below 
others; lefs than any other way.—No man more truly 
knows to place a right value on your friendffiip, than he 
who leaf deferves it on all other accounts than his due 
fenfe of it. Pope. 
Ev’n that avert; I chufe it not; 
But tafie it as the leaf unhappy lot. Dryden. 
At Least, or Leastwise. To fay no more; not to 
demand or affirm more than is barely fufficient; at the 
loweft degree. — A fiend may deceive a creature of more 
excellency than himfelf, at leaf by the tacit permiffion of 
the omnifeient Being. Dryden. —Every effeft doth after a 
fort contain, at leaf wife relemble, the caufe from which it 
proceedeth. fooker. 
Lie who tempts, though in vain, at leaf afperfes 
The tempted with diftionour. Milton. 
It has a fenfe implying doubt: to fay no more ; to fay the 
lead ; not to fay all that might be faid.—Let ufeful obfer- 
vations be at leaf fome part of the fubjeft of your conver- 
fation. Watts. 
Whether fuch virtue fpent now fail’d 
New angels to create, if they at) leaf 
Are his created. Milton. 
LEA 
LEA.ST, f. A minuted particle : 
And thence we that a leaf may well conclude 
Which utmolt is, too little to be view’d. Creech. 
It is ufed with a plural: 
They all affirm, that nature never refts 
In breaking bodies, and admits no leafs. Creech. 
LE'ASY, adj. [This word feems formed from the fame 
root with loijir, Fr. or loofef Flimfy; of weak texture. 
Not in ufe. —He never leaveth, while the fenfe itfelf be left 
loofe and leafy. Afcham's Schoolmafer. 
LEATH'ER, f. [le^eji, Sax. leaar, Erfe.] Dreffied 
hides of animals.—He was a hairy man, and girt with a 
girdle of leather about his loins. 2 Kings i. 8. 
And, if two boots keep out the weather, 
What need you have two hides of leather ? Prior. 
Skin ; ironically : 
Returning found in limb and wind, 
Except fome leather loft behind. Swift. 
It is often ufed in compofition for leathern , the adj. 
The fhepherd’s homely curds, 
His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle ; 
Is far beyond a prince’s delicacies. Shakefpeare. 
The three principal affortments of leather, as noticed 
in the ftat. 9 Anne, c. 11. § 3. are tanned, dreffied in oil, 
and tawed. By tanned hides or (kins, are meant fuch as 
are tanned in wooze, made of the bark of trees, or ffiu- 
mach ; by hides and (kins dreffed in oil, are meant fuch 
as are made into leather in oil, or with any materials, of 
which the chief ingredient (hall be oil; and by tawed 
hides or (kins, are meant fuch as are drefled or made into 
leather in alum and fait, or meal, or other ingredients 
properly ufed by tawers of whitdeather. See the articles 
Tanning, Tawing, and Currier. 
Cuttings of leather and whit-leather may be convert¬ 
ed to various ufes. Mr. Samuel Hooper, of St. Giles’s, 
London, bookfeller, took out a patent (Jan. 1790) for 
manufafturing fuch refufe cuttings into a leather for co¬ 
vering coaches &c. and for making boxes of various kinds, 
and other articles; mouldings, and other ornaments, for 
rooms; and for binding of books ; and alfo for making 
paper of various forts. The procefs is as follows : Put 
into an engine, according to its fize, one hundred-weight 
or more of fuch cuttings, fhavings, or parings, of leather; 
wafh them with water till clean from dirt, and then work 
with a proper quantity of water in the engine, till it is 
reduced to a fine pulp. This pulp muft be put into a 
cheft or tub, and worked on brafs or iron wire mounds, 
and made to any degree of thicknefs the different articles 
of the manufafture require. The pulp being ready to 
work, it muft be put into the moulds, and then, with a 
hand-ferew prefs fufpended in a frame over a table, preffed 
fufficiently to feparate the water from the pulp, in order 
to deliver it free from the mould ; which done, lay each 
piece, as it is made, between a kind of blanketing, or 
felting. This being done, put it in an upright Itrong 
prefs, and prefs it with fuch force as to leave it as free 
from water as poffible ; when preffed as dry as you can, 
take it immediately out, and fpread it flat on the ground, 
or on ftages made fit for the purpofe. As loon as it is 
dry, it muft be again put into the prefs, and preffied with 
great force, to give it a fmooth and even furface ; and, 
Ihould the fecond preffing not be fufficient to give it that 
even face neceffiary, then put each piece between metal 
plates and re-prefs it, or run it through iron or brafs rol¬ 
lers, which finilhes the operation. The procefs for ma- 
nufafturing the cuttings, (havings, or parings, of leather, 
for binding books, is the fame, in every refpeft, as above 
deferibed for making the covering for the fronts, backs, 
fides, and tops, of coaches, chariots, poft-chaifes, fedan- 
chairs, and trunks, leaving out the fize. The procefs for 
manufafturing the fame cuttings, &c. for making band, 
hat, 
