leaden

comparative more leaden · superlative most leaden

1. Of or related to the metal lead, particularly
   1. archaicMade of lead.

      Synonyms: lead, plumbic, plumbous, leady, saturnine

   2. figurativelyResembling 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.

      1 more example

      It was at the end of February..., when the world was cold..., when icy rains fell from the leaden skies in continual drizzling showers.

      1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust, page 31 (2001 Perennial paperback edition)

      Synonyms: lead, plumbic, plumbous, leady, saturnine, bland, colourless, dim

   3. figurativelyResembling the density of lead, heavy.

      Which break a teachless nature to the yoke.

      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)

      1 more example

      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.

      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

      Synonyms: lead, plumbic, plumbous, leady, saturnine

   4. figurativelyResembling the ponderousness of lead, sluggish.

      Synonyms: lead, plumbic, plumbous, leady, saturnine

present singular third person leadens · participle present leadening · participle past leadened · past leadened

1. ambitransitiveTo make or become dull or overcast.