Chapter Learn by Heart to Left of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

or wards it off.
   To lay a ship by the lee, or, in modern nautical phraseology, to heave-to, is to arrange the sails of a ship so that they may lie flat against the masts and shrouds, that the wind may strike the vessel broadside so that she will make little or no headway.

Lee Hatch Take care of the lee hatch. Take care, helmsman, that the ship goes not to the leeward of her course- i.e. the part towards which the wind blows.

Lee Shore is the shore under the lee of a ship, or that towards which the wind blows. (See Lee .)

Lee-side and Weather-side. (See Leeward .)

Lee Tide or Leeward Tide, is a tide running in the same direction as the wind blows. A tide in the opposite direction is called a tide under the lee.

Leeds (a Stock Exchange term). Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Ordinary Stock. It is the Leeds line.
   The Austrian Leeds. Brunn, in Moravia, noted for its woollen cloth. So it was called in the palmy days of Austria.

Leek Wearing the leek on St. David's day. Mr. Brady says St. David caused the Britons under King Cadwallader to distinguish themselves by a leek in their caps. They conquered the Saxons, and recall their victory by adopting the leek on every anniversary (March 1st). (Clavis Calendaria.) Wearing the leek is obsolete. (Anglo-Saxon leac.)
   Shakespeare makes out that the Welsh wore leeks at the battle of Poitiers, for Fluellen says:-

“If your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps, which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service, and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon St. Tavy's Day”- Henry V. iv 7.

   To eat the leek. To be compelled to eat your own words, or retract what you have said. Fluellen (in Shakespeare's Henry V.) is taunted by Pistol for wearing a leek in his hat. “Hence,” says Pistol, “I am qualmish at the smell of leek.” Fluellen replies, “I peseech you, at my desire to eat this leek.” The ancient answers, “Not for Cadwallader and all his goats.” Then the peppery Welshman beats him, nor desists till Pistol has swallowed the entire abhorrence.

Lees There are lees to every wine. The best things have some defect. A French proverb.

“Doubt is the lees of thought.”
Boker: Doubt, etc., i. 11.

   Settling on the lees. Making the best of a bad job; settling down on what is left, after having squandered the main part of one's fortune.

Leet (A). A manor-court for petty offences; the day on which such a court was held. (Anglo-Saxon, lethe, a law-court superior to the wapentake.)

“Who has a breast so pure,
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days and in session sit
With meditations lawful?”
Shakespeare: Othello, iii. 3.

Leeward and Windward. Leeward is toward the lee, or that part towards which the wind blows, windward is in the opposite direction, viz. in the teeth of the wind. “Leeward,” pronounced lew-ard. (See Lee .)

Lefevre The poor lieutenant whose story is so touchingly told in Sterne's Tristram Shandy book vi. chap. 6).

Left unlucky, Right lucky. The augur among the Romans having taken his stand on the Capitoline Hill, and marked out with his wand the space of the heavens to be the field of observation, divided the space into two from top to bottom. If the birds appeared on the left side of the division, the augury was unlucky, but if the birds appeared on the right side the augury was pronounced to be favourable.

“Hail, gentle bird, turn thy wings and fly on my right hand” but the bird flew on the left side. Then the cat grew very heavy, for he knew the omen to be unlucky.”- Reynard the Fox, iii.

   The Left, in the Legislative