Chapter Leadership to Lean-to of L by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Leadership to Lean-to

Leadership
(Lead"er*ship) n. The office of a leader.

Leadhillite
(Lead"hill*ite) n. (Min.) A mineral of a yellowish or greenish white color, consisting of the sulphate and carbonate of lead; — so called from having been first found at Leadhills, Scotland.

Leading
(Lead"ing) a. Guiding; directing; controlling; foremost; as, a leading motive; a leading man; a leading example. — Lead"ing*ly, adv.

Leading case (Law), a reported decision which has come to be regarded as settling the law of the question involved. Abbott. — Leading motive[a translation of G. leitmotif] (Mus.), a guiding theme; in the modern music drama of Wagner, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. — Leading note (Mus.), the seventh note or tone in the ascending major scale; the sensible note. — Leading question, a question so framed as to guide the person questioned in making his reply. — Leading strings, strings by which children are supported when beginning to walk. — To be in leading strings, to be in a state of infancy or dependence, or under the guidance of others. — Leading wheel, a wheel situated before the driving wheels of a locomotive engine.

Leading
(Lead"ing), n.

1. The act of guiding, directing, governing, or enticing; guidance. Shak.

2. Suggestion; hint; example. [Archaic] Bacon.

Leadman
(Lead"man) n.; pl. Leadmen One who leads a dance.[Obs.] B. Jonson.

Leadsman
(Leads"man) n.; pl. Leadsmen (Naut.) The man who heaves the lead. Totten.

Leadwort
(Lead"wort`) n. (Bot.) A genus of maritime herbs P. Europæa has lead-colored spots on the leaves, and nearly lead-colored flowers.

Leady
(Lead"y) a. Resembling lead. Sir T. Elyot.

Leaf
(Leaf) n.; pl. Leaves [OE. leef, lef, leaf, AS. leáf; akin to S. lof, OFries. laf, D. loof foliage, G. laub, OHG. loub leaf, foliage, Icel. lauf, Sw. löf, Dan. löv, Goth. laufs; cf. Lith. lapas. Cf. Lodge.]

1. (Bot.) A colored, usually green, expansion growing from the side of a stem or rootstock, in which the sap for the use of the plant is elaborated under the influence of light; one of the parts of a plant which collectively constitute its foliage.

Such leaves usually consist of a blade, or lamina , supported upon a leafstalk or petiole, which, continued through the blade as the midrib, gives off woody ribs and veins that support the cellular texture. The petiole has usually some sort of an appendage on each side of its base, which is called the stipule. The green parenchyma of the leaf is covered with a thin epiderm pierced with closable microscopic openings, known as stomata.

2. (Bot.) A special organ of vegetation in the form of a lateral outgrowth from the stem, whether appearing as a part of the foliage, or as a cotyledon, a scale, a bract, a spine, or a tendril.

In this view every part of a plant, except the root and the stem, is either a leaf, or is composed of leaves more or less modified and transformed.

3. Something which is like a leaf in being wide and thin and having a flat surface, or in being attached to a larger body by one edge or end; as : (a) A part of a book or folded sheet containing two pages upon its opposite sides. (b) A side, division, or part, that slides or is hinged, as of window shutters,