[LEE sb.1]
1. A shore that the wind blows upon.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 127. Themistocles … knew the enemies must of necessitie fall vpon the lee shore for harborow.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 498. Never did poor Mariners on a Lee-shore more earnestly long for the dawning Light.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. x. 104. To keep clear of this lee-shore.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. v. 5, 5. The English were so alarmingly close upon a lee shore, that one of the ships actually touched the ground.
attrib. 1871. Whittier, Sisters, 26. If in peril from swamping sea Or lee shore rocks.
† 2. A shore that affords shelter from the wind.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xliii. (1663), 171. We weighed Anchor, and … put ourselves under the lee-shore of a Creek.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 96. To retire under the lee-shore, and ply our oars in a smooth water.
