leash
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L24005 on Wikidata ↗verb
- put a leash on, possibly metaphorically
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /liːʃ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), either from Latin laxa, feminine form of laxus (“loose”) or, more probably, from a deverbal of Old French lesser, laissier, from Latin laxāre (“loose”); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.
- A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.
“A stout woman upholstered in velvet, her flabby cheeks too much massaged, swirled by with her poodle straining at its leash”
“like a fawning greyhound in the leash”
- A brace and a half; a tierce.
- A set of three animals (especially greyhounds, foxes, bucks, and hares;)
- A group of three.
“Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as, Tom, Dick, and Francis.”
“[I] kept my chamber a leash of days.”
- A string with a loop at the end for lifting warp threads, in a loom.
- A leg rope.
“Probably the idea was around before that, but the first photo of the leash in action was published that year”
- A kind of metrical construct in Skeltonics.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), either from Latin laxa, feminine form of laxus (“loose”) or, more probably, from a deverbal of Old French lesser, laissier, from Latin laxāre (“loose”); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.
- To fasten or secure with a leash.
- to curb, restrain
“Man is brow-beaten, leashed, muzzled, masked, and lashed by boards and councils, by leagues and societies, by church and state.”