English

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Dog on a leash.
 
Surf leash.

Etymology

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From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), from Latin laxa (thong, a loose cord), feminine form of laxus (loose); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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leash (plural leashes)

  1. A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.
    Synonym: lead
    • 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned:
      A stout woman upholstered in velvet, her flabby cheeks too much massaged, swirled by with her poodle straining at its leash
    • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi]:
      like a fawning greyhound in the leash
  2. (obsolete) A brace and a half; a tierce.
  3. (obsolete) A set of three animals (especially greyhounds, foxes, bucks, and hares;)
  4. (obsolete) A group of three.
  5. A string with a loop at the end for lifting warp threads, in a loom.[1]
  6. (surfing) A leg rope.
    • 1980 February, Drew Kampion, “As Years Roll By (1970's Retrospective”, in Surfing, page 43:
      Probably the idea was around before that, but the first photo of the leash in action was published that year
  7. (prosody) A kind of metrical construct in Skeltonics.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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leash (third-person singular simple present leashes, present participle leashing, simple past and past participle leashed)

  1. To fasten or secure with a leash.
  2. (figuratively) to curb, restrain

Antonyms

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Translations

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References

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Anagrams

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