Black lead, graphite or plumbago; -- so called from its leadlike appearance and streak. [Colloq.] -- Coasting lead, a sounding lead intermediate in weight between a hand lead and deep-sea lead. -- Deep- sea lead, the heaviest of sounding leads, used in water exceeding a hundred fathoms in depth. Ham. Nav. Encyc. -- Hand lead, a small lead use for sounding in shallow water. -- Krems lead, Kremnitz lead [so called from Krems or Kremnitz, in Austria], a pure variety of white lead, formed into tablets, and called also Krems, or Kremnitz, white, and Vienna white. -- Lead arming, tallow put in the hollow of a sounding lead. See To arm the lead (below). -- Lead colic. See under Colic. -- Lead color, a deep bluish gray color, like tarnished lead. -- Lead glance. (Min.) Same as Galena. -- Lead line (a) (Med.) A dark line along the gums produced by a deposit of metallic lead, due to lead poisoning. (b) (Naut.) A sounding line. -- Lead mill, a leaden polishing wheel, used by lapidaries. -- Lead ocher (Min.), a massive sulphur-yellow oxide of lead. Same as Massicot. -- Lead pencil, a pencil of which the marking material is graphite (black lead). -- Lead plant (Bot.), a low leguminous plant, genus Amorpha (A. canescens), found in the Northwestern United States, where its presence is supposed to indicate lead ore. Gray. -- Lead tree. (a) (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous tree, Leucæna glauca; -- probably so called from the glaucous color of the foliage. (b) (Chem.) Lead crystallized in arborescent forms from a solution of some lead salt, as by suspending a strip of zinc in lead acetate. -- Mock lead, a miner's term for blende. -- Red lead, a scarlet, crystalline, granular powder, consisting of minium when pure, but commonly containing several of the oxides of lead. It is used as a paint or cement and also as an ingredient of flint glass. -- Red lead ore (Min.), crocoite. -- Sugar of lead, acetate of lead. -- To arm the lead, to fill the hollow in the bottom of a sounding lead with tallow in order to discover the nature of the bottom by the substances adhering. Ham. Nav. Encyc. -- To cast, or heave, the lead, to cast the sounding lead for ascertaining the depth of water. -- White lead, hydrated carbonate of lead, obtained as a white, amorphous powder, and much used as an ingredient of white paint.

If a blind man lead a blind man, both fall down in the ditch. Wyclif (Matt. xv. 14.)

They thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill. Luke iv. 29.

In thy right hand lead with thee
The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty. Milton.

The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way. Ex. xiii. 21.

He leadeth me beside the still waters. Ps. xxiii. 2.

This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask.
Content, though blind, had I no better guide. Milton.

Christ took not upon him flesh and blood that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies, or possess places. South.

As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way. Fairfax.

And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. Leigh Hunt.

He was driven by the necessities of the times, more than led by his own disposition, to any rigor of actions. Eikon Basilike.

Silly women, laden with sins, led away by divers lusts. 2 Tim. iii. 6 (Rev. Ver.).

That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. 1 Tim. ii. 2.

Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse
A life that leads melodious days. Tennyson.

You remember . . . the life he used to lead his wife and daughter. Dickens.

To lead astray, to guide in a wrong way, or into error; to seduce from truth or rectitude. -- To lead captive, to carry or bring into captivity. -- To lead the way, to show the way by going in front; to act as guide. Goldsmith.

The mountain foot that leads towards Mantua. Shak.

To lead off or out, to go first; to begin.

At the time I speak of, and having a momentary lead, . . . I am sure I did my country important service. Burke.

* When used alone it means outside lead, or lead for the admission of steam. Inside lead refers to the release or exhaust.

Lead angle (Steam Engine), the angle which the crank maker with the line of centers, in approaching it, at the instant when the valve opens to admit steam. -- Lead screw (Mach.), the main longitudinal screw of a lathe, which gives the feed motion to the carriage.