an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading; "he hoped his claims would have a semblance of authenticity"; "he tried to give his falsehood the gloss of moral sanction"; "the situation soon took on a different color"
the playing of a card to start a trick in bridge; "the lead was in the dummy"
a position of leadership (especially in the phrase `take the lead'); "he takes the lead in any group"; "we were just waiting for someone to take the lead"; "they didn't follow our lead"
mixture of graphite with clay in different degrees of hardness; the marking substance in a pencil
thin strip of metal used to separate lines of type in printing
an advantage held by a competitor in a race; "he took the lead at the last turn"
evidence pointing to a possible solution; "the police are following a promising lead"; "the trail led straight to the perpetrator"
the introductory section of a story; "it was an amusing lead-in to a very serious matter"
a news story of major importance
(baseball) the position taken by a base runner preparing to advance to the next base; "he took a long lead off first"
(sports) the score by which a team or individual is winning
the angle between the direction a gun is aimed and the position of a moving target (correcting for the flight time of the missile)
a soft heavy toxic malleable metallic element; bluish white when freshly cut but tarnishes readily to dull grey; "the children were playing with lead soldiers"
cause to undertake a certain action; "Her greed led her to forge the checks"
travel in front of; go in advance of others; "The procession was headed by John"
take somebody somewhere; "We lead him to our chief"; "can you take me to the main entrance?"; "He conducted us to the palace"
tend to or result in; "This remark lead to further arguments among the guests"
be ahead of others; be the first; "she topped her class every year"
an investigation seeking answers; "a thorough search of the ledgers revealed nothing"; "the outcome justified the search"
boarding and inspecting a ship on the high seas; "right of search"
the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone
the examination of alternative hypotheses; "his search for a move that would avoid checkmate was unsuccessful"
an operation that determines whether one or more of a set of items has a specified property; "they wrote a program to do a table lookup"
try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of; "The police are searching for clues"; "They are searching for the missing man in the entire county"
subject to a search; "The police searched the suspect"; "We searched the whole house for the missing keys"
search or seek; "We looked all day and finally found the child in the forest"; "Look elsewhere for the perfect gift!"