lease

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /liːs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːs

From Middle English *lesen, from Anglo-Norman *leser, Old French lesser, laisier (“to let, let go”), partly from Latin laxō (“to loose”) and partly from Old High German lāzan (“to let, let go, release”) (German lassen), cognate with Old English lǣtan (“to allow, let go, leave, rent”) 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

• subtenancy, undertenancy, subletting, underletting, (informal) sublet, underlet

• → Dutch: leasen
• ⇒ English: leasing
  • → Spanish: leasing
  • → Finnish: leasing
  • → Polish: leasing
  • → Swedish: leasing

lease (third-person singular simple present 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.

• lease-lend
• re-lease

• lessor, lessee

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lesan (“to collect, pick, select, gather”), from Proto-West Germanic *lesan, from Proto-Germanic *lesaną (“to gather”).

lease (third-person singular simple present 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.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:lease.

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lēasian (“to lie, tell lies”), from lēas (“falsehood, lying, untruth, mistake”).

lease (third-person singular simple present leases, present participle leasing, simple past and past participle leased)

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

• leasing

From Middle English lese, from Old English lǣs (“meadow”), from Proto-West Germanic *lāsu (“meadow”). See also leasow.

• leaze

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 (“to loosen, release, redeem, deliver, liberate”), from Proto-Germanic *lausijaną (“to release, loosen”).

• leese (Scotland)

lease (third-person singular simple present 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.

• Elsea, Seale, eales, easel, easle, seale

• IPA^(key): /liːs/, /lis/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lease
• Homophone: lies

Borrowed from English lease.

lease f (plural leases, diminutive leaseje n)

1. lease

   Synonym: pacht

• leaseauto
• leasewagen

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lease

1. inflection of leasen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive
   3. imperative

lease

1. first/third-person singular imperfect subjunctive of lear

lease

1. Alternative form of les

lease

1. Alternative form of les

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæ͜ɑː.se/, [ˈlæ͜ɑː.ze]

lēase

1. inflection of lēas:
   1. strong accusative feminine singular
   2. strong instrumental masculine/neuter singular
   3. strong nominative/accusative masculine/feminine plural
   4. weak nominative neuter/feminine singular