lead2
/led/ • noun 1 a heavy bluish-grey soft ductile metallic element. 2 graphite used as the part of a pencil that makes a mark. 3 Printing a blank space between lines of print (originally created by a metal strip). 4 Nautical a lump of lead suspended on a line to determine the depth of water. 5 (leads) Brit. sheets or strips of lead covering a roof. 6 (leads) lead frames holding the glass of a lattice or stained-glass window. — PHRASES go down like a lead balloon (of a speech, proposal, or joke) be poorly received. — ORIGIN Old English.
Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary
About this dictionary
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English contains 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions.
Find out more about Oxford's range of English dictionaries
Sign up for the AskOxford Word of the Day
Search the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Search the Concise Dictionary of First Names
| 
