leaden
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈlɛdən/
Adjective

leaden

  1. (dated) Made of lead.
  2. Pertaining to or resembling lead; grey, heavy, sluggish.
    • 1819, John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, OCLC 927360557 ↗, stanza 3, page 109 ↗:
      Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs, / Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, / Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.
    • 1818-1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Julian and Maddalo
      [...] if man be
      The passive thing you say, I should not see
      Much harm in the religions and old saws
      (Tho' I may never own such leaden laws)
      Which break a teachless nature to the yoke.
  3. Dull; darkened with overcast.
    the sky was leaden and thick
    • 1999: Stardust, Neil Gaiman, page 31 (2001 Perennial paperback edition)
      "It was at the end of February..., when the world was cold..., when icy rains fell from the leaden skies in continual drizzling showers."
Translations Translations Translations Verb

leaden (leadens, present participle leadening; past and past participle leadened)

  1. (ambitransitive) To make or become dull or overcast.



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Offline English dictionary