leash

plural leashes

1. A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.

   like a fawning greyhound in the leash

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi]

   1 more example

   A stout woman upholstered in velvet, her flabby cheeks too much massaged, swirled by with her poodle straining at its leash

   1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

   Synonyms: lead

2. obsoleteA brace and a half; a tierce.
3. collectiveobsoleteA set of three animals (especially greyhounds, foxes, deer/bucks, and hares).

   Coordinate term: brace

4. collectiveobsoleteA group of three.

   [I] kept my chamber a leash of days.

   1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   3 more examples

   Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as, Tom, Dick, and Francis.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   It had an odd promiscuous tone, / As if h' had talk'd three parts in one; / Which made some think, when he did gabble, / Th' had heard three labourers of Babel; / Or Cerberus himself pronounce / A leash of languages at once.

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC

   An I could climb and lay my hand upon it, / Then were I wealthier than a leash of kings.

   1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Gareth and Lynette”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; V), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 39

   Synonyms: trio, see Thesaurus:trio

5. A string with a loop at the end for lifting warp threads, in a loom.
6. hobbiesA leg rope.

   Probably the idea was around before that, but the first photo of the leash in action was published that year

   1980 February, Drew Kampion, “As Years Roll By (1970's Retrospective”, in Surfing, page 43

7. human sciencesA kind of metrical construct in Skeltonics.

present singular third person leashes · participle present leashing · participle past leashed · past leashed

1. To fasten or secure with a leash.
2. figurativelyto curb, restrain

   Man is brow-beaten, leashed, muzzled, masked, and lashed by boards and councils, by leagues and societies, by church and state.

   1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress