Word.ws English Dictionary

lead the line

lead the line verb: to play as centre forward.

Verb

lead the line (third-person singular simple present leads the line, present participle leading the line, simple past and past participle led the line)

  1. (idiomatic) To play as centre forward.
    • Andy Carroll is leading the line, with Suarez playing behind him.
    • Martial, who had been an injury doubt, led the line with strength and positivity.2021 March 7, David Hytner, “Manchester United catch City cold as Fernandes and Shaw end winning run”, in The Guardian

Forms of lead the line

third-person singular presentleads the line
present participleleading the line
past participleled the line
pastled the line

Questions about lead the line

What does lead the line mean?
Lead the line means to play as centre forward.
What part of speech is lead the line?
Lead the line is a verb.
What is the past tense of lead the line?
The past tense of lead the line is led the line.

Words near lead the line in the dictionary

  1. lead swingers
  2. lead tenant
  3. lead tenants
  4. lead tetroxide
  5. lead the charge
  6. lead the line
  7. lead the way
  8. lead through
  9. lead time
  10. lead times
  11. lead to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lead the line (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-lead the line.ogg.

Cite this entry: “lead the line.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lead_the_line. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.