lee

Etymology 1

From Middle English lee, from Old English hlēo, hlēow (“shelter, protection”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaiwaz (compare German Lee (“lee”), Swedish lä, Danish læ, Norwegian le, Old Norse hlé, Dutch lij), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (compare Welsh clyd (“warm, cozy”), Latin calēre (“to warm up”), Lithuanian šiltas (“warm, pleasant”), Sanskrit शरद् (śarad, “autumn”)).

noun

1. (nautical) A protected cove or harbor, out of the wind.
2. (nautical) The side of the ship away from the wind.
3. A sheltered place, especially a place protected from the wind by some object; the side sheltered from the wind (see also leeside); shelter; protection.
   the lee of a mountain, an island, or a ship
   Desiring me to take shelter in his lee. 1873, John Tyndall, “Niagara”, in Fragments of Science, published 1907, page 182

adj

1. (nautical, geology) Facing away from the flow of a fluid, usually air.
   lee side, lee shore, lee helm

Etymology 2

noun

1. (obsolete) Lees; dregs.

Etymology 3

noun

1. Obsolete form of li (“traditional Chinese unit of distance”).
   Here, after little less than a month's protracted journey over a distance, by the Chinese itinerary, of 950 lees, and by our own calculation 280 miles, from the canal, we quitted the magnificent Keang to cross the lake […] 1865, John Francis Davis, Chinese Miscellanies: A Collection of Essays and Notes, page 184