leash

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.

   A stout woman upholstered in velvet, her flabby cheeks too much massaged, swirled by with her poodle straining at its leash

2. 2
   noun

   A group of three.

   Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as, Tom, Dick, and Francis.

3. 3
   noun

   A leg rope.

   Probably the idea was around before that, but the first photo of the leash in action was published that year

4. 4
   verb

   to curb, restrain

   Man is brow-beaten, leashed, muzzled, masked, and lashed by boards and councils, by leagues and societies, by church and state.

5. 5
   noun

   a figurative restraint

6. 6
   noun

   restraint consisting of a rope (or light chain) used to restrain an animal

7. 7
   noun

   the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one

8. 8
   verb

   fasten with a rope

Etymology

From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), either from Latin laxa, feminine form of laxus (“loose”) or, more probably, from a deverbal of Old French lesser, laissier, from Latin laxāre (“loose”); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.