lease

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified period in exchange for a specified rent.
2. n. The term or duration of such a contract.
3. n. Property used or occupied under the terms of such a contract.
4. v. To grant use or occupation of under the terms of a contract.
5. v. To get or hold by such a contract.
6. idiom. a new lease on life An opportunity to improve one's circumstances or outlook.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To gather; pick; pick up; pick out; select.
2. Specifically To glean, as corn.
3. To glean; gather up leavings, as at harvest.
4. To grant the temporary possession of, as lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to another for compensation at a fixed rate; let; demise.
5. To take a lease of, or to take, as lands, etc., by a lease: as, he leased the farm from the proprietor. Synonyms Let, Rent, etc. See hire.
6. n. A contract transferring a right to the possession and enjoyment of real property for life or for a definite period of time or at will, usually made in consideration of a periodical compensation called rent, in modern times usually payable in money, but sometimes in a share of the produce, and in former times frequently in services. The grantor or landlord is called the lessor, the grantee the lessee. The act of the grantor is called a demise; the right of the grantee is called the term; his holding under it is called a tenancy. The right of the lessor to have possession again at the end of the term, or sooner in case of forfeiture, is called the reversion. If the grantor has only a term and grants the whole of it, the contract is not. technically a lease, but, even if in the form of a lease, is deemed only an assignment. If the grantor of a term retains any reversion, even for a single day, the contract is a lease. A contract not transferring a right of possession, but merely contemplating that such right shall be transferred in the future, is not a lease, but an agreement for a lease. A contract transferring such a right to commence in enjoyment at a future day—as, for instance, one executed in February to give possession in May—is a lease; but the right of the lessee for the intervening period before the term is an interesse termini. The word lease is sometimes loosely applied to a letting of personal property.
7. n. The written instrument by which a leasehold estate is created. The word is also loosely applied to oral contracts of letting, which, however, are made void by the statute of frauds unless for a term not exceeding one year.
8. n. The duration of tenure by lease; a term of leasing; hence, the terminable time or period of anything: as, to take property on a long lease; a short lease of life.
9. False; lying; deceptive.
10. n. Falsehood; a lie.
11. n. A pasture.
12. n. A common.
13. n. In weaving, the system of crossings in the warp-threads in a loom between the yarn-beam and the heddles, effected by passing each warp-thread alternately over and under the lease-rods.
14. n. In Australian mining, a mining leasehold; a piece of ground leased for the purpose of mining.

Wiktionary

1. v. to gather.
2. v. to pick, select, pick out; to pick up.
3. v. to glean.
4. v. to glean, gather up leavings.
5. v. To operate or live in some property or land through purchasing a long-term contract (or leasehold) from the owner (or freeholder).
6. v. To take or hold by lease.
7. v. To grant a lease; to let or rent.
8. adj. false; lying; deceptive
9. n. falsehood; a lie
10. n. an open pasture or common
11. n. A contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified period in exchange for a specified rent
12. n. The period of such a contract
13. n. A leasehold

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To gather what harvesters have left behind; to glean.
2. v. To grant to another by lease the possession of, as of lands, tenements, and hereditaments; to let; to demise; ; -- sometimes with out.
3. v. To hold under a lease; to take lease of.
4. n. The temporary transfer of a possession to another person in return for a fee or other valuable consideration paid for the transfer A demise or letting of lands, tenements, or hereditaments to another for life, for a term of years, or at will, or for any less interest than that which the lessor has in the property, usually for a specified rent or compensation.
5. n. The contract for such letting.
6. n. Any tenure by grant or permission; the time for which such a tenure holds good; allotted time.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services
2. v. grant use or occupation of under a term of contract
3. n. a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment
4. v. engage for service under a term of contract
5. v. let for money
6. n. property that is leased or rented out or let
7. n. the period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect