lea

• IPA^(key): /liː/, /leɪ/
• Rhymes: -iː, -eɪ
• Homophones: lee, Lee, Leigh

From Middle English legh, lege, lei (“clearing, open ground”), from Old English lēah (“clearing in a forest”) from Proto-West Germanic *lauh (“meadow”), from Proto-Germanic *lauhaz (“meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *lówkos (“field, meadow”).

Akin to Old Frisian lāch (“meadow”), Old Saxon lōh (“forest, grove”) (Middle Dutch loo (“forest, thicket”); Dutch -lo (“in placenames”)), Old High German lōh (“covered clearing, low bushes”), Old Norse lō (“clearing, meadow”).

• leigh, ley, lay

lea (plural leas)

Lea Marsh, UK.

1. An open field, meadow, pasture.
   • 1750, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

     The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
     The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
     The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
     And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

   • 19th century, Alfred Tennyson, Circumstance

     Two children in two neighbor villages

     Playing mad pranks along the heathy leas;

From Middle English le, lee, ley, of uncertain origin. Compare Old French lier (“to bind”), Old French laisse (“leash, cord”), Old French lïace, lïaz (“bundle”).

lea (plural leas)

1. Any of several measures of yarn; for linen, 300 yards (275 m); for cotton, 120 yards (110 m).

   Synonym: rap

2. A set of warp threads carried by a loop of the heddle.

• Ale, E-la, EAL, ELA, Ela, LAE, ael, ale

Blend of le +‎ la.

• IPA^(key): /lə.a/

lea gender-neutral (plural les)

1. (neologism) the

lea gender-neutral (plural les)

1. (neologism) them (direct object)

   Je ne lea vois pas souvent.

   I don't see them often

• iel

lea

1. inflection of ler:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative
2. inflection of lear:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

lea f (plural leas)

1. fight, quarrel

   Synonyms: liorta, briga, lida

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.a/, [ˈɫ̪eä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈle.a/, [ˈlɛːä]

lea f (genitive leae); first declension

1. (poetic) a lioness

First-declension noun.

• leaena

• leō m

• “lea”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lea”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lea in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• lea in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “lea”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈlea̯/

lea

1. third-person singular present indicative of leat

lea

1. simple past and past participle of lee

• leet

From the Old Norse verbs liða and hliða.

• lee (with e infinitive)
• leda, lede

lea (present tense lear, past tense lea, past participle lea, passive infinitive least, present participle leande, imperative lea/le)

1. (transitive) to wiggle, move

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lea n

1. definite plural of le

• “lea” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• ale, ela

• IPA^(key): [le̯a]

lea

1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of la

• IPA^(key): /ˈlea/
• Hyphenation: le‧a

lea

1. (intransitive) to be ripe

• Gizaw Shimelis, editor (2007), “lea”, in Sidaama-Amharic-English dictionary, Addis Ababa: Sidama Information and Culture department

• IPA^(key): /ˈlea/ [ˈle.a]
• Rhymes: -ea
• Syllabification: le‧a

lea

1. inflection of leer:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• Audio (Kenya)

  (file)

-lea (infinitive kulea)

1. to raise a child, to rear
2. to care for something (attend to the needs of)

• Verbal derivations:
  • Passive: -lelewa (“to be raised”)

Probably from Proto-Polynesian *leo (compare Maori reo).

• IPA^(key): /le.a/

lea

1. language; speech

   lea fakatonga ― Tongan language

lea

1. Alternative form of laave
   • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 104:

     An lea a pariesh o Kilmannan.

     And leave the parish of Kilmannan.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 52