leese

• IPA^(key): /liːz/
• Rhymes: -iːz
• Homophones: lees, leas

From Middle English lesen, from Old English *lēosan (only attested in compounds: belēosan, forlēosan, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *leusaną (“to lose”), from Proto-Indo-European *lews- (“to cut; sever; separate; loosen; lose”).

leese (third-person singular simple present leeses, present participle leesing, simple past lore or leesed, past participle lorn or leesed)

1. (obsolete) To lose.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 5”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     But flowers distill'd though they with winter meet,
     Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

   • a. 1598, William Cecil, Advice to his son:

     They would rather leese their friend than their jest.

   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “September. Ægloga Nona.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

     Yet better leave off with a little losse,
     Then by much wrestling to leese the grosse

   • 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, signature O iij, recto:

     Take heed you leeſe it not Signior, ere you come there: preſerue it.

• forlese

From Middle English lesen, from Old English lȳsan, līesan (“to let loose; release”), from Proto-Germanic *lausijaną. Cognate with Dutch lozen, German lösen, Swedish lösa.

leese (third-person singular simple present leeses, present participle leesing, simple past and past participle leesed)

1. (obsolete) To release, set free.
2. (obsolete) To loosen, unfasten.

Compare French léser, Latin laesus.

leese

1. (obsolete, transitive) To hurt.