leash

Etymology

From Middle English leesshe, leysche, lesshe, a variant of more original lease, from Middle English lees, leese, leece, lese, from Old French lesse (modern French laisse), from Latin laxa (“thong, a loose cord”), feminine form of laxus (“loose”); compare lax. Doublet of laisse.

noun

1. A strap, cord or rope with which to restrain an animal, often a dog.
   A stout woman upholstered in velvet, her flabby cheeks too much massaged, swirled by with her poodle straining at its leash 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned
2. A brace and a half; a tierce.
3. A set of three animals (especially greyhounds, foxes, bucks, and hares;)
4. A group of three
5. A string with a loop at the end for lifting warp threads, in a loom.
6. (surfing) A leg rope.
   Probably the idea was around before that, but the first photo of the leash in action was published that year 1980 February, Drew Kampion, “As Years Roll By (1970's Retrospective”, in Surfing, page 43

verb

1. To fasten or secure with a leash.
2. (figurative) to curb, restrain
   Man is brow-beaten, leashed, muzzled, masked, and lashed by boards and councils, by leagues and societies, by church and state. 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress