lease

See also: Lease, léase, and -lease

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /liːs/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːs

Etymology 1

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lesan (“to collect, pick, select, gather”), from Proto-Germanic *lesaną (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *les- (“to gather”). Cognate with Scots lease (“to arrange, gather”), Saterland Frisian leese (“to gather, read”), West Frisian lêze (“to read”), Dutch lezen (“to gather, read”), German lesen (“to gather, read”), Danish læse (“to collect, read”).

Verb

lease (third-person singular simple present leases, present participle leasing, simple past and past participle leased)

  1. (transitive, chiefly dialectal) to gather.
  2. (transitive, chiefly dialectal) to pick, select, pick out; to pick up.
  3. (transitive, chiefly dialectal) to glean.
  4. (intransitive, chiefly dialectal) to glean, gather up leavings.

Quotations

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:lease.

Etymology 2

From Middle English leas, lees, les, from Old English lēas (“false, void, loose”), from Proto-Germanic *lausaz (“loose, free”), from Proto-Indo-European *lū- (“to untie, set free, sever”). Cognate with German los (“loose”), Swedish lös (“loose”). More at loose.

Adjective

lease (comparative leaser or more lease, superlative leasest or most lease)

  1. false; lying; deceptive

Noun

lease (plural leases)

  1. falsehood; a lie
    This is all lease. I don't believe it.
    • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː
      We held with him there he said lease, and therefore have we all unpeaceǃ
    • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː
      Ye shall have joy and bliss […] I say without lease.
    • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː
      He is so fair, without lease, he seems full well to sit on this.

Etymology 3

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lēasian (“to lie, tell lies”), from lēas (“falsehood, lying, untruth, mistake”).

Verb

lease (third-person singular simple present leases, present participle leasing, simple past and past participle leased)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, Britain dialectal) To tell lies; tell lies about; slander; calumniate.

Etymology 4

From Middle English lese, from Old English lǣs (“meadow”), from Proto-Germanic *lēswō (“meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēy-, *lēid- (“to leave, let”). Cognate with Old Saxon lēsa (“meadow”). See also leasow.

Alternative forms

Noun

lease (plural leases)

  1. an open pasture or common
    • 1928, Thomas Hardy, He Never Expected Much:
      Since as a child I used to lie
      Upon the leaze and watch the sky,
      Never, I own, expected I
      That life would all be fair.

Etymology 5

From Middle English lesen, from Old English līesan (“to loosen, release, redeem, deliver, liberate”), from Proto-Germanic *lausijaną (“to release, loosen”), from Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to cut, solve, separate”). Cognate with Dutch lozen (“to drain, discharge”), German lösen (“to release”), Swedish lösa (“to solve”), Icelandic leysa (“to solve”).

Alternative forms

Verb

lease (third-person singular simple present leases, present participle leasing, simple past and past participle leased)

  1. (transitive, Britain dialectal) To release; let go; unloose.

Etymology 6

From Middle English *lesen, from Anglo-Norman *leser, Old French lesser, laisier (“to let, let go”), partly from Latin laxō (“to loose”) and partly from Old High German lāzan (“to let, let go, release”) (German lassen). Cognate with Old English lǣtan (“to allow, let go, leave, rent”). More at let.

Verb

lease (third-person singular simple present leases, present participle leasing, simple past and past participle leased)

  1. (transitive) To operate or live in some property or land through purchasing a long-term contract (or leasehold) from the owner (or freeholder).
  2. (transitive) To take or hold by lease.
  3. (intransitive) To grant a lease; to let or rent.
Translations

Noun

lease (plural leases)

  1. A contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified period in exchange for a specified rent
  2. The period of such a contract
    • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18:
      Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
      And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
  3. A leasehold
Translations

Etymology 7

From leash.

Noun

lease (plural leases)

  1. The place at which the warp-threads cross on a loom.

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Audio(file)

Verb

lease

  1. first-person singular present indicative of leasen
  2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of leasen
  3. imperative of leasen
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