Lead n.
 1. Chem. One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished.  It is both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets, etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible (melting point 327.5° C), forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82.  Atomic weight, 207.2. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide.
 2. An article made of lead or an alloy of lead; as: (a) A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea. (b) Print. A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing. (c) Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs; hence, pl., a roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.
    I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top.   --Bacon
 3. A small cylinder of black lead or graphite, used in pencils.
 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 white, 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 (Amorpha 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 the lead, or To 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.


 Tree n.
 1. Bot. Any perennial woody plant of considerable size (usually over twenty feet high) and growing with a single trunk.
 Note: ☞ The kind of tree referred to, in any particular case, is often indicated by a modifying word; as forest tree, fruit tree, palm tree, apple tree, pear tree, etc.
 2. Something constructed in the form of, or considered as resembling, a tree, consisting of a stem, or stock, and branches; as, a genealogical tree.
 3. A piece of timber, or something commonly made of timber; -- used in composition, as in axletree, boottree, chesstree, crosstree, whiffletree, and the like.
 4. A cross or gallows; as Tyburn tree.
    [Jesus] whom they slew and hanged on a tree.   --Acts x. 39.
 5. Wood; timber. [Obs.]
    In a great house ben not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of tree and of earth.   --Wyclif (2 Tim. ii. 20).
 6. Chem. A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution. See Lead tree, under Lead.
 Tree bear Zool., the raccoon. [Local, U. S.]
 Tree beetle Zool. any one of numerous species of beetles which feed on the leaves of trees and shrubs, as the May beetles, the rose beetle, the rose chafer, and the goldsmith beetle.
 Tree bug Zool., any one of numerous species of hemipterous insects which live upon, and suck the sap of, trees and shrubs. They belong to Arma, Pentatoma, Rhaphigaster, and allied genera.
 Tree cat Zool., the common paradoxure (Paradoxurus musang).
 Tree clover Bot., a tall kind of melilot (Melilotus alba). See Melilot.
 Tree crab Zool., the purse crab. See under Purse.
 Tree creeper Zool., any one of numerous species of arboreal creepers belonging to Certhia, Climacteris, and allied genera. See Creeper, 3.
 Tree cricket Zool., a nearly white arboreal American cricket (Ecanthus nivœus) which is noted for its loud stridulation; -- called also white cricket.
 Tree crow Zool., any one of several species of Old World crows belonging to Crypsirhina and allied genera, intermediate between the true crows and the jays. The tail is long, and the bill is curved and without a tooth.
 Tree dove Zool. any one of several species of East Indian and Asiatic doves belonging to Macropygia and allied genera. They have long and broad tails, are chiefly arboreal in their habits, and feed mainly on fruit.
 Tree duck Zool., any one of several species of ducks belonging to Dendrocygna and allied genera. These ducks have a long and slender neck and a long hind toe. They are arboreal in their habits, and are found in the tropical parts of America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
 Tree fern Bot., an arborescent fern having a straight trunk, sometimes twenty or twenty-five feet high, or even higher, and bearing a cluster of fronds at the top. Most of the existing species are tropical.
 Tree fish Zool., a California market fish (Sebastichthys serriceps).
 Tree frog. Zool. (a) Same as Tree toad. (b) Any one of numerous species of Old World frogs belonging to Chiromantis, Rhacophorus, and allied genera of the family Ranidae. Their toes are furnished with suckers for adhesion. The flying frog (see under Flying) is an example.
 Tree goose Zool., the bernicle goose.
 Tree hopper Zool., any one of numerous species of small leaping hemipterous insects which live chiefly on the branches and twigs of trees, and injure them by sucking the sap. Many of them are very odd in shape, the prothorax being often prolonged upward or forward in the form of a spine or crest.
 Tree jobber Zool., a woodpecker. [Obs.]
 Tree kangaroo. Zool. See Kangaroo.
 Tree lark Zool., the tree pipit. [Prov. Eng.]
 Tree lizard Zool., any one of a group of Old World arboreal lizards (formerly grouped as the Dendrosauria) comprising the chameleons; also applied to various lizards belonging to the families Agamidae or Iguanidae, especially those of the genus Urosaurus, such as the lined tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus) of the southwestern U.S.
 Tree lobster. Zool. Same as Tree crab, above.
 Tree louse Zool., any aphid; a plant louse.
 Tree moss. Bot. (a) Any moss or lichen growing on trees. (b) Any species of moss in the form of a miniature tree.
 Tree mouse Zool., any one of several species of African mice of the subfamily Dendromyinae. They have long claws and habitually live in trees.
 Tree nymph, a wood nymph. See Dryad.
 Tree of a saddle, a saddle frame.
 Tree of heaven Bot., an ornamental tree (Ailantus glandulosus) having long, handsome pinnate leaves, and greenish flowers of a disagreeable odor.
 Tree of life Bot., a tree of the genus Thuja; arbor vitae.
 Tree onion Bot., a species of garlic (Allium proliferum) which produces bulbs in place of flowers, or among its flowers.
 Tree oyster Zool., a small American oyster (Ostrea folium) which adheres to the roots of the mangrove tree; -- called also raccoon oyster.
 Tree pie Zool., any species of Asiatic birds of the genus Dendrocitta. The tree pies are allied to the magpie.
 Tree pigeon Zool., any one of numerous species of longwinged arboreal pigeons native of Asia, Africa, and Australia, and belonging to Megaloprepia, Carpophaga, and allied genera.
 Tree pipit. Zool. See under Pipit.
 Tree porcupine Zool., any one of several species of Central and South American arboreal porcupines belonging to the genera Chaetomys and Sphingurus.  They have an elongated and somewhat prehensile tail, only four toes on the hind feet, and a body covered with short spines mixed with bristles.  One South American species (Sphingurus villosus) is called also couiy; another (Sphingurus prehensilis) is called also cœndou.
 Tree rat Zool., any one of several species of large ratlike West Indian rodents belonging to the genera Capromys and Plagiodon. They are allied to the porcupines.
 Tree serpent Zool., a tree snake.
 Tree shrike Zool., a bush shrike.
 Tree snake Zool., any one of numerous species of snakes of the genus Dendrophis. They live chiefly among the branches of trees, and are not venomous.
 Tree sorrel Bot., a kind of sorrel (Rumex Lunaria) which attains the stature of a small tree, and bears greenish flowers.  It is found in the Canary Islands and Tenerife.
 Tree sparrow Zool. any one of several species of small arboreal sparrows, especially the American tree sparrow (Spizella monticola), and the common European species (Passer montanus).
 Tree swallow Zool., any one of several species of swallows of the genus Hylochelidon which lay their eggs in holes in dead trees. They inhabit Australia and adjacent regions. Called also martin in Australia.
 Tree swift Zool., any one of several species of swifts of the genus Dendrochelidon which inhabit the East Indies and Southern Asia.
 Tree tiger Zool., a leopard.
 Tree toad Zool., any one of numerous species of amphibians belonging to Hyla and allied genera of the family Hylidae. They are related to the common frogs and toads, but have the tips of the toes expanded into suckers by means of which they cling to the bark and leaves of trees.  Only one species (Hyla arborea) is found in Europe, but numerous species occur in America and Australia.  The common tree toad of the Northern United States (Hyla versicolor) is noted for the facility with which it changes its colors.  Called also tree frog. See also Piping frog, under Piping, and Cricket frog, under Cricket.
 Tree warbler Zool., any one of several species of arboreal warblers belonging to Phylloscopus and allied genera.
 Tree wool Bot., a fine fiber obtained from the leaves of pine trees.


 lead tree
      n : low scrubby tree of tropical and subtropical North America
          having white flowers tinged with yellow resembling mimosa
          and long flattened pods [syn: white popinac, {Leucaena
          glauca, Leucaena leucocephala]