Search the Dictionary

An adjectival suffix, meaning made of; as in golden, leaden, wooden.

Any disease or symptoms of disease referable to disorders of the brain; as, lead encephalopathy, the cerebral symptoms attending chronic lead poisoning.

ne; to enter upon another's land; the boy enters on his tenth year; to enter upon a task; lead enters into the composition of pewter.

To lead on; to bring along; to introduce. [Obs.] To baptize all nations, and entertain them into the services institutions of the holy Jesus. Jer. Taylor.

desire; to allure; to attract; as, the bait enticed the fishes. Often in a bad sense: To lead astray; to induce to evil; to tempt; as, the sirens enticed them to listen. Roses blushing as they blow, And enticing men to pull. Beau. & Fl. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Prov. i. 10. Go, and thine errin…

Used in entreaty; pleading. [R.] "Entreative phrase." A. Brewer.

That by which entrance is made; a passage leading into a house or other building, or to a room; a vestibule; an adit, as of a mine. A straight, long entry to the temple led. Dryden.

The adducing of particular examples so as to lead to a universal conclusion; the argument by induction.

That part which embraces the main action of a play, poem, and the like, and leads on to the catastrophe; -- opposed to protasis.

different senses, with intent to deceive; to use ambiguous expressions with a view to mislead; as, to equivocate is the work of duplicity. All that Garnet had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to equivocate. Bp. Stillingfleet.

The use of expressions susceptible of a double signification, with a purpose to mislead. There being no room for equivocations, there is no need of distinctions. Locke.

Controversial. [Archaic] A specimen of admirable special pleading in the court of eristic logic. Coleridge.

Misleading; misled; mistaking. [Obs.] An erroneous conscience commands us to do what we ought to omit. Jer. Taylor.

harge to a jury; or as to lapse of time, or scandal, impertinence, or insufficiency in a pleading; also, as in conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts something before granted. Burrill.

nce; dissipation. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. Eph. v. 18. Thy desire . . . leads to no excess That reaches blame. Milton.

ng, releasing, and the like; acquittal; release; absolution; justification; extenuation. Pleading so wisely in excuse of it. Shak.

One who offers excuses or pleads in extenuation of the fault of another. Swift.

One who, or that which, stands as an index or representative; as, the leader of a party is the exponent of its principles. Exponent of a ratio, the quotient arising when the antecedent is divided by the consequent; thus, 6 is the exponent of the ratio of 30 to 5. [R.]

ell-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul. But know that in the soul Are many lesser faculties that serve Reason as chief. Milton.…

Embodying or pertaining to a fallacy; illogical; fitted to deceive; misleading; delusive; as, fallacious arguments or reasoning. -- Fal*la"cious*ly, adv. -Fal*la"cious*ness, n.