Lead"ing , n.
1. The act
of guiding, directing, governing, or enticing; guidance.
Shak.
2. Suggestion; hint; example. [Archaic]
Bacon.
Lead"ing (?), a.
Guiding; directing; controlling; foremost;
as, a leading motive; a leading man; a leading example.
-- Lead"ing*ly, adv.
Leading case (Law), a reported decision which has come to be regarded as settling the law of the question involved.
Abbott. -- Leading motive [a translation of G. leitmotif]
(Mus.), a guiding theme; in the
modern music drama of Wagner, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course
of the play;
a sort of musical label. -- Leading note (Mus.), the seventh note or tone in the ascending major scale; the sensible note. -- Leading question, a question so framed as to guide the person questioned in making his
reply. -- Leading
strings, strings by which children are supported when beginning to walk. -- To be in leading
strings, to be in a state of infancy or
dependence, or under the guidance of others. --
Leading wheel,
a wheel situated before the driving wheels of a locomotive engine.
Hear it pronounced