a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship
the act or practice of so gathering
1865–70; < Swedish: mating ground (perhaps elliptically from lekställe ), mating, game, play, Old Norse leikr play, cognate with Old English lāc struggle, offering, gift, Gothic laiks dance, Old High German leih melody
Borrowed into English from Albanian around 1925–30
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There, Vold counted 22 birds — a record for that lek and an exciting sight for someone who knows the bird’s numbers have declined by 80% since 1965.
From Seattle Times ● May 27, 2024
These wild chickens are figuratively as well as literally colorful: When the males decide to court females, they gather in an area of either bare ground or short foliage called a "booming groundor lek."
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2023
In a lek, each male has a territory, and the females shop around.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2019
A male sage grouse struts his stuff in what’s known as a lek, a group of males trying to attract females.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 10, 2018
When they were done, they followed us on the path, singing one of S. E. Rogie’s songs, “Nor look me bad eye, nor weigh me lek dat...”
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
In her first solo museum show, Long Beach-based artist Tidawhitney Lek paints a tender portrait of her city: moments of picnicking on the grass, celebrating a birthday, walking past dandelions on the sidewalk.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
The first thing you notice about the paintings of Tidawhitney Lek is the hands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023
“For school, we’d have these assignments where it’s like, ‘Go ask your parents what it was like when they were growing up,’” recalls Lek.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023
Yet he and his keeper, or mahout, Sornsiri "Lek" Sapmak, are in trouble.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2023
Away hobbled the dame; and Lek, wondering at her answer, entered what seemed to him the principal street.
From Zigzag Journeys in Northern Lands; The Rhine to the Arctic; A Summer Trip of the Zigzag Club Through Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden by Butterworth, Hezekiah
Others appear to participate in lekking behavior, in which two or more males will perform for a female — duking it out through courtship displays — to gain her favor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2023
Mariana Muñoz Romo, a bat biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who was not involved in the study, said she wasn’t ready to label the behavior as lekking.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2020
Fallow are famous for lekking, which means they put on spectacular shows during the mid-October rut.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2019
These males don’t shy away from competition and will use the same lekking ground for years.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 10, 2018
High costs of female choice in a lekking lizard.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 17, 2012
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
