FromMiddle Englishledinge,ledynge,ledand,ledande,ledende, fromOld Englishlǣdende, fromProto-West Germanic*laidijandī, fromProto-Germanic*laidijandz, present participle ofProto-Germanic*laidijaną(“to lead”), equivalent tolead +-ing. CompareWest Frisianliedend,Dutchleidend,Germanleitend,Swedishledande,Icelandicleiðandi.
leading
- presentparticiple andgerund oflead
1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter II, inThe Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company; London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC:I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finallyleading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.
leading (notcomparable)
- Providingguidance ordirection.
Avoidleading questions if you really want the truth.
- Rankingfirst.
He is aleading supplier of plumbing supplies in the county.
- Occurring inadvance;preceding.
- Antonyms:following,lagging,trailing
The stock market can be aleading economic indicator.
FromMiddle Englishleding,ledyng,ledinge,ledunge, equivalent tolead +-ing. Cognate withDutchleiding(“conduit, leading, guidance, leadership”),GermanLeitung(“line, conduit, cable”).
leading (pluralleadings)
- An act by which one isled orguided.
1792, William Carey,An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the[1]:It has been said that we ought not to force our way, but to wait for the openings, andleadings of Providence; but it might with equal propriety be answered in this case, neither ought we to neglect embracing those openings in providence which daily present themselves to us.
1892,Walt Whitman, “A Song for Occupations”, inLeaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.:David McKay, publisher, […],→OCLC, stanza 5,page175:I do not affirm that what you see beyond is futile, I do not advise you to stop, / I do not sayleadings you thought great are not great, / But I say that none lead to greater than these lead to.
1904, Edward Dowden,Robert Browning[2]:In his poetic method each writer followed theleadings of his own genius, without reference to common rules and standards; the individualism of the Revolutionary epoch asserted itself to the full.
- (archaic)Command of anarmy ormilitaryunit.
c.1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe],Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published1592,→OCLC; reprinted asTamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press,1973,→ISBN,Act I, scene ii:Art thou but Captaine of a thouſand horſe,
That by Characters grauen in thy browes,
And by thy martiall face and ſtout aſpect,
Deſeru’ſt to haue theleading of an hoſte?
FromMiddle Englishleedynge, equivalent tolead(chemical element) +-ing; so named because in metal typesetting (letterpress andhot metal typesetting), pieces of lead (slugs, strips, blocks, etc) were often the mechanical means of producing the gap.
leading (uncountable)
- (typography)Verticalspaceadded betweenlines; line spacing.
- Hypernym:white space
Vertical space added between lines
