leaden

From Middle English leden, leaden, from Old English lēaden (“leaden, of lead”). Cognate with West Frisian leaden (“leaden”), Dutch loden (“leaden”). By surface analysis, lead +‎ -en.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛdən/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɛdən

leaden (comparative more leaden, superlative most leaden)

1. Of or related to the metal lead, particularly

   Synonyms: lead, plumbic, plumbous, (uncommon) leady, (archaic) saturnine

   1. (archaic) Made of lead.
   2. (figurative) Resembling the color of lead, metallic or dark gray; (of daylight) dim, overcast.

      The sky was dark and overcast, a leaden pall producing a deep gloom.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dim

      • 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust, 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."

   3. (figurative) Resembling the density of lead, heavy.
      • 1819, John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, 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.

   4. (figurative) Resembling the ponderousness of lead, sluggish.

leaden (third-person singular simple present leadens, present participle leadening, simple past and past participle leadened)

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

• Delena, andele, aneled, leaned, nealed

leaden

1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of leden (“to lead”)

leaden

1. (Late Middle English) alternative form of leden (“leaden”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæ͜ɑː.den/

lēaden

1. alternative form of līeden