• (British, America) IPA: /liːs/

From Middle English *lesen, from Anglo-Norman *leser, Old French lesser, laisier ("to let, let go"), partly from Latin laxō and partly from Old High German lāzan (German lassen), cognate with Old English lǣtan whence let.

lease (plural leases)

1. (formal, law) An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold.
2. An interest granting exclusive use of any thing, such as a car or boat.
3. The contract or deed under which such an interest is granted.
4. The document containing such a contract or deed.
5. The period of such an interest.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 18”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC ↗:

     Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
     And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

• tenancy, letting

• French: contrat de bail, bail
• German: Pacht
• Russian: аре́нда
• Spanish: contrato de arrendamiento

• French: loyer

lease (leases, present participle leasing; simple past and past participle leased)

1. (transitive, formal, law) To grant a lease as a landlord; to let.
2. (transitive, informal) To hold a lease as a tenant.

   I'm leasing a small apartment in Runcorn for a month while I'm there for work.

• German: pachten
• Portuguese: arrendar
• Russian: арендова́ть

• lessor, lessee

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lesan, from Proto-West Germanic *lesan, from Proto-Germanic *lesaną.

lease (leases, present participle leasing; simple past and past participle leased) (chiefly, dialectal)

1. (transitive) To gather.
2. (transitive) To pick, select, pick out; to pick up.
3. (transitive) To glean.
4. (intransitive) To glean, gather up leavings.

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lēasian, from lēas.

lease (leases, present participle leasing; simple past and past participle leased)

1. (ambitransitive, UK dialectal) To tell lies; tell lies about; slander; calumniate.

From Middle English lese, from Old English lǣs, from Proto-West Germanic *lāsu.

lease (plural leases)

1. An open pasture or common.
   • 1928, Thomas Hardy, He Never Expected Much:

     Since as a child I used to lie
     Upon the leaze and watch the sky,
     Never, I own, expected I
     That life would all be fair.

From Middle English lesen, from Old English līesan, from Proto-Germanic *lausijaną.

lease (leases, present participle leasing; simple past and past participle leased)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal) To release; let go; unloose.

From leash.

lease (plural leases)

1. The place at which the warp-threads cross on a loom.

1. Surname.