Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Leading

Lead′ing (lēd′ĭng), 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.

Lead′ing, n. 1. The act of guiding, directing, governing, or enticing; guidance. Shak.

2. Suggestion; hint; example. [Archaic] Bacon.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.