LEASE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lease mean? 

• LEASE (noun)
  The noun LEASE has 3 senses:

1. property that is leased or rented out or let

2. a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment

3. the period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect

  Familiarity information: LEASE used as a noun is uncommon.

• LEASE (verb)
  The verb LEASE has 4 senses:

1. let for money

2. hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

3. grant use or occupation of under a term of contract

4. engage for service under a term of contract

  Familiarity information: LEASE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEASE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Property that is leased or rented out or let

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

lease; letting; rental

Hypernyms ("lease" is a kind of...):

belongings; holding; property (something owned; any tangible or intangible possession that is owned by someone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lease"):

car rental; hire car; rent-a-car; self-drive; u-drive; you-drive (a rented car)

sublease; sublet (a lease from one lessee to another)

Derivation:

lease (grant use or occupation of under a term of contract)

lease (let for money)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("lease" is a kind of...):

contract (a binding agreement between two or more persons that is enforceable by law)

Derivation:

lease (grant use or occupation of under a term of contract)

lease (let for money)

lease (hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services)

lease (engage for service under a term of contract)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

lease; term of a contract

Hypernyms ("lease" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Derivation:

lease (engage for service under a term of contract)

lease (grant use or occupation of under a term of contract)

lease (let for money)

lease (hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services)

• LEASE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they lease    ... he / she / it leases   
Past simple: leased   
Past participle: leased   
-ing form: leasing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Let for money

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

lease; rent

Context example:

We rented our apartment to friends while we were abroad

Hypernyms (to "lease" is one way to...):

contract; undertake (enter into a contractual arrangement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

lease (a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment)

lease (property that is leased or rented out or let)

lease (the period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect)

lessee (a tenant who holds a lease)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

charter; hire; lease; rent

Hypernyms (to "lease" is one way to...):

contract; undertake (enter into a contractual arrangement)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

lease (a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment)

lease (the period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect)

lessee (a tenant who holds a lease)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Grant use or occupation of under a term of contract

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

lease; let; rent

Context example:

I am leasing my country estate to some foreigners

Hypernyms (to "lease" is one way to...):

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lease"):

sublease; sublet (lease or rent all or part of (a leased or rented property) to another person)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sentence examples:

They lease cars to the tourists
They lease the tourists their cars

Derivation:

lease (a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment)

lease (property that is leased or rented out or let)

lease (the period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Engage for service under a term of contract

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

charter; engage; hire; lease; rent; take

Context example:

Shall we take a guide in Rome?

Hypernyms (to "lease" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

lease (the period of time during which a contract conveying property to a person is in effect)

lease (a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment)

 Context examples 

You might also want to lease or buy a vacation home.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Now it has a 6- to 30-year lease on life, according to a new NASA study.

(NASA Shows New Tongan Island Made of Tuff Stuff, Likely to Persist Years, NASA)

I shall let a seven years' lease of Everingham.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

You will not think of quitting it in a hurry, I hope, though you have but a short lease.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Why, I've only been back three weeks from Uganda, and taken a place in Scotland, and signed the lease and all.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now, however, tunicamycin could get a new lease on life.

(Soil Bacterium Tapped for Penicillin Guard Duty, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

And the Spy-glass is sold, lease and goodwill and rigging; and the old girl's off to meet me.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Why should I not? And yet I hate to think of this old scandal gaining a new lease of life. Did you ever hear of Dawson and Neligan?”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My eldest uncle John had left me an estate in land, near Epping, of about thirty pounds a-year; and I had a long lease of the Black Bull in Fetter-Lane, which yielded me as much more; so that I was not in any danger of leaving my family upon the parish.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I replied, with all due deference to his experience (but with more deference, I am afraid, to his being Dora's father), that perhaps it was a little nonsensical that the Registry of that Court, containing the original wills of all persons leaving effects within the immense province of Canterbury, for three whole centuries, should be an accidental building, never designed for the purpose, leased by the registrars for their Own private emolument, unsafe, not even ascertained to be fire-proof, choked with the important documents it held, and positively, from the roof to the basement, a mercenary speculation of the registrars, who took great fees from the public, and crammed the public's wills away anyhow and anywhere, having no other object than to get rid of them cheaply.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)