lees

From Old French lies, from Medieval Latin lias (“lees, dregs”) (descent via winemaking common in monasteries), from Gaulish *ligyā, *legyā (“silt, sediment”) (compare Welsh llai, Old Breton leh (“deposit, silt”)), from Proto-Celtic *legyā (“layer”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”).

lees pl (plural only)

1. The sediment that settles during fermentation of beverages, consisting of dead yeast and precipitated parts of the fruit.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 7:

     Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X:

     Kipper drained his glass to the lees and seemed to become calmer.

• (sediment): dregs

• lie

lees

1. plural of lee

• slee, Slee, lese, EELS, eels, Else, seel, else, sele, ELEs

From Dutch lezen, from Middle Dutch lēsen (“to collect, gather, read”), from Old Dutch lesan (“to gather, read”), from Proto-Germanic *lesaną (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *les- (“to gather”).

• IPA^(key): /lɪəs/

• Audio:

  (file)

lees (present lees, present participle lesende, past participle gelees)

1. to read

• leser

• IPA^(key): /leːs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːs

lees

1. inflection of lezen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

• slee

lees

1. second-person singular present subjunctive of lear

lees

1. second-person singular present indicative of leeën

From Old Frisian lesa, from Proto-Germanic *lesaną.

lees

1. (Föhr-Amrum, Sylt) to read

• leese (Mooring)

From Old Frisian *hletha (attested in the past participle hleden), from Proto-Germanic *hlaþaną.

lees

1. (Föhr-Amrum) to load

• leese (Mooring)
• leer (Sylt)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlees/ [ˈle.es]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ees
• Syllabification: le‧es

lees

1. second-person singular present indicative of leer