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  1. lek love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. See Table at currency.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. A dialectal variant of lake.
  2. n. An assemblage of black cocks, Tetrao tetrix, during the pairing season, when the birds select their mates.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The currency unit of Albania, divided into 100 qindarka.
  2. n. biology An aggregation of male animals for the purposes of courtship and display.
  3. v. biology To take part in the courtship and display behaviour of a lek.
  4. v. UK, dialect, Yorkshire, colloquial To play.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the basic unit of money in Albania

Etymologies

  1. From Germanic roots meaning "play". In the biology sense, it comes specifically from Swedish lek ("child's play") in 1871, by means of Swedish leka ("to play"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Albanian, after Lek Dukagjin, 15th-century Albanian feudal lord and lawgiver. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Lekking behavior, biologists call it, and the display site itself is known as a lek.”

    Simon & Schuster: The Song of The Dodo

  • “I have no doubt the two party crashers at my lek were the same two I had flushed off their pole four miles back.”

    grouse Diary Entry

  • “Fortunately we were off to finally check Scottys Peak lek, which is only about a dozen miles from town.”

    grouse Diary Entry

  • “In ornithology, a lek is a pocket of forest where male birds put on curious sexual displays.”

    NYT > Home Page

  • “The only known 'lek' mating system in any marine mammal in the world is observable amongst South Cove dugong.”

    Shark Bay, Australia

  • “(It wasn't until I was parked at the second new lek, which is actually the first new lek, that I remember one if the reasons I bought this Olympus camera is because it can use regular alkaline batteries.”

    grouse Diary Entry

  • “The female Twi'lek's voice was tinged with just a touch of cynicism.”

    Fictionaut: The Cat is a Metaphor

  • “We did not find the lek but discovered some beautiful natural outcrops of rock and juniper, and raced from one to the next, proclaiming each rock-and-tree arrangement more handsome than the last.”

    Simon & Schuster: Bird Cloud

  • “Bo.lan Duangporn 'Bo' Songvisava and Dylan Jones' seven-course degustation menu changes regularly, but you can expect something like gaeng ki lek a northern Thai curry dish, along with a fiery representative from the far south.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Eating in Southeast Asia

  • “He adds: "Although he had hopes for being the reincarnation of the All-knowing Yon-ten Gya-tso, he was made the reincarnation of Ngak-wang Ge-lek" (thams cad mkhyen pa yon tan rgya mtsho'i sprul sku yong du re yang ngag dbang dge legs kyi sprul sku byas pas).”

    The Shugden Affair: Origins of a Controversy (Part I)

Show 10 more examples...

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. albanian monetary unit

same context (19)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. astrategic
  2. 16-year
  3. song-and-dance
  1. magistrates'
  2. half-jocular
  3. state-sanctioned
  1. public/private
  2. top
  3. decades-long
  1. multi-year
  2. collegial
  3. flatiron
  1. songwriting
  2. unbiblical
  3. off-balance-sheet
  1. post-conviction
  2. then
  3. joint-stock
  1. tripartite

rhymes (45)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Cech
  2. Czech
  3. Dec
  4. Eck
  5. Lech
  6. Peck
  7. Quebec
  8. bec
  9. beck
  1. bedeck
  2. blech
  3. bleck
  4. breck
  5. check
  6. chek
  7. dec
  8. deck
  9. exec
  1. feck
  2. fleck
  3. freck
  4. geck
  5. heck
  6. keck
  7. lech
  8. leck
  9. mech
  1. meck
  2. nec
  3. neck
  4. pech
  5. peck
  6. rec
  7. recheck
  8. reck
  9. sec
  1. seck
  2. spec
  3. speck
  4. tec
  5. tech
  6. tek
  7. trek
  8. weck
  9. wreck

reverse dictionary (3)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. qintar
  1. Zaporizhzhya
  1. qindarka

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. avian
  1. animals

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘lek’.

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Comments

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  • knitandpurl "Men show off; women pretend to be impressed—the eternal circle of the selective lek."
    Winter by Adam Gopnik, p 147 of the House of Anansi paperback edition Jun 23, 2012

  • bilby Sorry darling, you're out of lek. Oct 22, 2009

  • yarb ...showing off to the opposite sex in groups is a strategy used by many animals (it is known as lekking).

    - "Why Music?", The Economist, vol. 389 no. 8611, p. 42 Dec 24, 2008

  • reesetee True, trivet. But they probably have more fun at the bars. Oct 13, 2007

  • trivet Errrr - certain ungulates and I think some bats use leks as well... Oct 13, 2007

  • chained_bear *holding head* Oct 12, 2007

  • reesetee They must need an editor, uselessness.

    Yes, it is Albanian currency, but that should never be used to buy a girl bird a drink. Unless, of course, you're in Albania. Oct 12, 2007

  • uselessness Yes, see its presence on my Filthy Stinking Rich list. Oct 12, 2007

  • yarb Also the currency of Albania (I think). Oct 12, 2007

  • uselessness Haha, how could the dictionary leave that part out? Oct 12, 2007

  • reesetee A traditional place where males assemble during the mating season and engage in competitive displays that attract females.

    Oh, I forgot to say "birds." Male birds. ;-> Oct 12, 2007

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‘lek’ has been looked up 3253 times, loved by 1 person, added to 21 lists, commented on 11 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7.