Word.ws English Dictionary

led on

led on is the simple past and past participle of lead on.

Meaning of lead on

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) 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
    1. (idiomatic, transitive) To encourage with the illusion of a romantic relationship.
      • I thought she really loved me but really she was just leading me on.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lead, on.

Questions about led on

What is led on the simple past and past participle of?
Led on is the simple past and past participle of lead on.

Words near led on in the dictionary

  1. led horse
  2. led horses
  3. led in
  4. led nowhere
  5. led off
  6. led on
  7. led out
  8. led someone down the garden path
  9. led someone up the garden path
  10. led the charge
  11. led the line

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: led on (page history and authors); lead on (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “led on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/led_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.