lead on
lead on verb: to mislead, to try to make someone believe a lie.
Verb
lead on (third-person singular simple present leads on, present participle leading on, simple past and past participle led on)
- To mislead, to try to make someone believe a lie.
- "But when I fell into the mistake I have so long remained in, at least you led me on?" said I. / "Yes," she returned, again nodding steadily, "I let you go on."1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter V, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 73
- To encourage with the illusion of a romantic relationship.
- I thought she really loved me but really she was just leading me on.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lead, on.
lead on meaning in Tamil and Kannada
lead on in Tamil
- நடவு
lead on in Kannada
- to lead on
- ಸೆಳೆ seḷe
Forms of lead on
| third-person singular present | leads on |
|---|---|
| present participle | leading on |
| past participle | led on |
| past | led on |
Questions about lead on
- What does lead on mean?
- Lead on means to mislead, to try to make someone believe a lie.
- What is lead on in Tamil?
- Lead on in Tamil is நடவு. See Lead on meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is lead on?
- Lead on is a verb.
- What is the past tense of lead on?
- The past tense of lead on is led on.
Words near lead on in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lead on (page history and authors); lead on (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಸೆಳೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “lead on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lead_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.