leads

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of lead.

   The senior partner leads the firm's most important negotiations.

   This corridor leads straight to the main auditorium.

   Note

   The form a singular subject calls for: the partner leads, the corridor leads, she leads. With I, you, we or they the bare lead returns. The same spelling also serves a second verb built on the metal behind the plural noun. That verb means covering or filling something with lead, and in printing, now historical, it meant placing leads between lines of type.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of lead.

   The reporter chased down half a dozen leads before the deadline.

   Two of the show's leads called in sick on opening night.

   Note

   One spelling covers two quite different nouns: the leads a reporter chases and the leads made of the metal. Lead the metal is uncountable, so its plural names countable things made from it. These include the plummets sailors drop to sound depth, the thin strips printers set between lines of type, and the sheets laid over a roof. In that roofing use, the leads can mean the roof itself.

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