Leam
name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A gleam or flash of light; a glow or glowing. UK, dialectal
"The Leams of the morning sun streamed through the half-closed shutters"
- 2 A cord or strap for leading a dog.
"The horsemen spreading themselves along the side of the cover, waited untill the keeper entered, leading his ban-dog; a large blood-hound tied in a leam or band, from which he takes his name."
- 1 To gleam; shine; glow. UK, dialectal, intransitive
- 1 A river in England that rises in Northamptonshire, before flowing through Warwickshire and joining the Warwickshire Avon near Warwick.
- 2 A hamlet in Grindleford parish, Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire, England (OS grid ref SK2379).
- 3 Leamington Spa informal
Example
More examples"The Leams of the morning sun streamed through the half-closed shutters"
Etymology
From Middle English lemen, from Old English lȳman, from Proto-West Germanic *liuhmijan, from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light, bright”).
From Middle English leme, from Old English lēoma (“ray of light, beam, radiance, gleam, glare, lightning”), from Proto-Germanic *leuhmô (“light, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light, bright”). Cognate with Icelandic ljómi (“gleam, ray, beam, flash of light”), Latin lumen (“light”).
See leamer, lien.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.