Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of lying.
  • noun A lie; a falsehood.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of gathering; gleaning.
  • noun An armful of hay or corn, such as is leased or gleaned.
  • noun The act of letting or taking on lease.
  • noun An erroneous form of leashing (in weaving).
  • noun The telling of lies; lying; a lie; falsehood; lying report.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Archaic The act of lying; falsehood; a lie or lies.
  • noun (Scots Law) the uttering of lies or libels upon the personal character of the sovereign, his court, or his family.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic A lie; the act of lying, falsehood.
  • verb Present participle of lease.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English lesing, from Old English lēasung, from lēasian, to lie, from lēas, untrue; see leu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lesing, leasung, from Old English lēasung ("leasing, lying, false witness, deceit, hypocrisy, artifice, lie, empty talk, frivolity, laxity"), from lēasian ("to lie"), from lēas ("false, faithless, untruthful, deceitful, lax, vain, worthless"). Cognate with Scots lesing ("lying"). More at lease.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From lease.

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Examples

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  • Old Gloucestershire term meaning "picking up the corn left by the reapers &c., called in some counties gleaning".

    May 2, 2011