Lead'er, n.
(leed'er), n. 1. One who, or that which, leads or conducts; a guide; a conductor; especially, (a.) One who goes first. (b.) A chief; a commander; a captain. (c.) The chief of a party or faction; as, the leader of the Whigs or of the Tories; a leader of the Jacobins. (d.) (Mus.) A performer who leads a band or choir in music; also, in an orchestra, the performer on the principal violin. (e.) The leading editorial article in a newspaper.
(f.) (Mach.) The principal wheel in any kind of machinery. Francis. (g.) A horse, usually one of spirit, placed in advance of others; one of the forward pair in a four-horse team.
He forgot to pull in his leaders, and they gallop away with him a-times. Hare.
(h.) (Mining.) A branch or small vein, not important in itself, but indicating the proximity of a better one.
Sense 2. (pl.) (Print.) A row of dots or periods,—occasionally of hyphens,—used in tables of contents, indexes, and in similar matter, to lead the eye to the end of a line for the completion of the sense.
Synonyms—Chief; chieftain; commander. See CHIEF.