leak, leaky. Spelt leke, Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 35; leake, id., vi. 8. 24. OE. hlece.
leally, truly, verily. Spelt lelely, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 1 (Sylvia); loyally, ‘He sall leallie and trewlie use and exerce his office’, Skene, Difficil Words (1681). Anglo-F. leal, loyal (Rough List), O. Prov. leal (Levy).
lear; see [lere].
leare, a cheek; learys, cheeks, Morte Arthur, leaf 186. 4; bk. ix, ch. 21; spelt lyers, Stanyhurst, tr. Aeneid, i. 471. OE. hlēor, cheek, face. See [leer].
lease, a pasture. Tusser, Husbandry, § 33. 49; lees, Fitzherbert, Husb., § 148. 18; ‘In pastures and leases’, Lyte, tr. of Dodoens, bk. i, ch. 63 (The Place).
leasues, ‘leasowes’, pastures, Udall, tr. Apoph., Diogenes, § 103. OE. lǣs, a pasture (dat. lǣswe). See EDD. (s.v. Leasowe).
lease; Lease-parol, a lease by word of mouth, instead of in writing. Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 3 (1298); p. 134, col. 1.
lease, lese, to lie, tell lies. A Knack to know a Knave (Honesty), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 511. ME. lesen, OE. lēasian, to tell lies; lēas, false.
leasing, lying, falsehood, a lie. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 105; Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 48; Bible, Ps. iv. 2; v. 6; lesynge, Coverdale, 2 Esdras xiv. 18. ME. leesyng (Wyclif, Ps. v. 7). OE. lēasung.
leathe-weake, having the joints flexible, hence, pliant, soft. Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, 129). A north-country word, written leathwake, lithwake, leathweak (EDD.). ME. lithwayke, ‘flexibilis’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. leoðuwāc, liðewāc (BT.).