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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

LEASE, v.¹ Also leaze, leese, leesh, leeze, lise (Edb. 1812 P. Forbes Poems 16). intr. To tell lies; tr. to tell lies about, slander, calumniate. [li:z]Ayr. 1706 A. Edgar Old Church Life (1886) II. 375:
A mother and a daughter, “were cited before the Session, next Fryday, for leazing Mr Maitland.” Most freq. in ppl.adj. and vbl.n. leasin, leesin, leeshin, lying, slandering, (speaking) falsehood. Phrs.: but leezance [= leasins], without a lie, truly; leesin' like, like a falsehood, unplausible. Mostly arch. or liter.Peb. 1715 A. Pennecuik Works (1815) 405:
Thou speaks a leasing in that thing.Sc. 1721 R. Wodrow Sufferings I. i. s. 2:
All who hear any such Leasings, Calumnies, or Slanders.Edb. 1772 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 73:
Thir queans are ay upon the catch For pursie, pocket-book, or watch, And can sae glibb their leesins hatch.Edb. 1801 J. Thomson Poems 133:
Sic things my gude-dam tauld to me, … But O I think it's leesin' like!Sc. 1822 Scott F. Nigel iv.:
You were better up to your neck in the Nor-Loch … than tell a leasing where his Majesty's name is concerned.Lnk. a.1832 W. Watt Poems (1860) 37:
But, leezance! it's past redemption now.m.Lth. 1857 Misty Morning 250: 
Some o' their leeshin' nonsense, I fancy.m.Lth. 1858 Dark Night 71: 
Maister Elliwut manna tak in a' your leeshin' stories.Dmf. 1877 R. W. Thom Jock o' the Knowe 1:
Gif ony loon wi' a leasing tongue O' the gaberlunzie spoke.Sc. 1907 D. MacAlister Echoes (1923) 125:
Wi' leasin' they begeck the lan'.

Hence Sc. Law comb. leasing-making, the spreading of calumny against the Sovereign likely to cause sedition or disaffection, corresp. to scandalum magnatum in Eng. Law, seditious utterance (see 1811 quot.); calumny, rumour-mongering in gen. (rare). A person guilty of this is a leasing-maker. Obs. exc. hist.Sc. 1703 Acts Parl. Scot. XI. 104:
Act anent Leesing makers and Slanderers.Sc. 1797 D. Hume Punishment of Crimes II. 83:
Act anent Leasing-makers, and the acts therein recited, and by the laws of all well governed nations, leasing-making, and the uttering of slanderous speeches, tending to excite sedition, and alienate the affection of the people from his Majesty's person and government.Sc. 1811 J. Burnett Crim. Law 250:
Leasing-Making is not always sedition, any more than sedition is in every instance Leasing-Making; which last is, in its nature, properly a verbat injury, or slander, directed against the Prince, and may be committed without a seditious intention, though, in effect, it always must have a seditious tendency.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality xi.:
I would have the fellows that write such nonsence brought to the picquet for leasing-making.Ayr. 1826 Galt Last of Lairds xxviii.:
Did ye no hear o' the leesin' makin' that I was made the innocent victim o'?Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 898:
Sedition is distinguished from leasing-making, in this respect, that the object of leasing-making is to disparage or prejudice the private character of the Sovereign, whereas sedition is directed against the order and tranquillity of the State.Fif. 1864 St Andrews Gaz. (22 Oct.):
Grumblers and leasing makers thought fit to say that an interdict had been served upon the parties.Sc. 1904 A. M. Anderson Criminal Law 63:
Originally the punishment was death, but in 1703 it was relaxed to an arbitrary penalty. By the Leasing-making (Scotland) Act, 1825, the punishment for leasing-making, sedition, and blasphemy was declared to be fine or imprisonment, or both.