Skip to content

lee

noun

  1. area sheltered from wind
L14964 on Wikidata ↗

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L338091 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /liː/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English lee, from Old English hlēo, hlēow (“shelter, protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlaiw (whence also Proto-Slavic *xlěvъ), from Proto-Germanic *hlaiwaz (compare German Lee (“lee”), Swedish lä, Danish læ, Norwegian le, Old Norse hlé, Dutch lij), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (compare Welsh clyd (“warm, cozy”), Latin calēre (“to warm up”), Lithuanian šiltas (“warm, pleasant”), Sanskrit शरद् (śarad, “autumn”)).

  1. Facing away from the flow of a fluid, usually air.

    lee side, lee shore, lee helm

name

Etymology: A diminutive.

  1. A male given name.
  2. A male given name.

noun

  1. Obsolete form of li (“traditional Chinese unit of distance”).

    Here, after little less than a month's protracted journey over a distance, by the Chinese itinerary, of 950 lees, and by our own calculation 280 miles, from the canal, we quitted the magnificent Keang to cross the lake […]