[f. LEAD v.2 + -ING1.] The action of LEAD v.2 a. A covering, framing or mending with lead. b. concr. = CAME; leadwork in general. c. Printing. The action of placing ‘leads’ between the lines of type. d. quasi-concr. The fouling of a gun with lead from bullets.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 293/1. Leeding wythe leed, plumbacio.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., II. 1799/2. Paules Churche … costeth me a good deale of money by the yeare, the leading thereof.
1573. Baret, Alv., L 157. A leading or souldring in lead, plumbitura.
1597. MS. Rawl. D. 176 fo. 275 b. The sydes of the Chauncell, the Leadding whereof being defectyve.
1611. Cotgr., Plombement, a leading or tinning.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 83. The leading of the Bread room … was a preservation of the Bread;… if it had not been for the leading of it, it would not have lasted half so long.
1807. Syd. Smith, P. Plymley’s Lett., ix. Wks. 1840, III. 440. A Protestant plumber has discovered that it [the parish church] wants new leading.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., Leading, separating by leads, as in printing.
1881. Greener, Gun, 261. This removes all ‘leading’ and deposit.
1884. Kath. S. Macquoid, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 369/2. The blasts are so violent that it seems as if the small diamond-shaped panes might soon be whirled out of their leadings into the river below.
1894. Athenæum, 26 May, 674/1. The ‘leading’ of the pages of the two texts differs considerably.
