leastways
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of leastways
First recorded in 1350–1400, leastways is from Middle English leest weye. See least, -ways
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
‘Go now? What’s your little game? It isn’t time yet. It can’t be tea-time even, leastways not in decent places where there is tea-time.’
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
![]()
‘I saw him, Mr. Butterbur,’ said a hobbit; ‘or leastways I didn’t see him, if you take my meaning. He just vanished into thin air, in a manner of speaking.’
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
![]()
“Ah didn’t aim tuh let on tuh yuh ’bout it, leastways not right away, but Ah ruther be shot wid tacks than fuh you tuh act wid me lak you is right now.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
![]()
We live on our lodgings, that's what we live on; leastways mother and me; Eustace keeps himself, and a bit over now that Mr. Hooper's started giving him his old clothes.
From A Woman Perfected by Marsh, Richard
At the end of a quarter hour’s tinkering Earl reckoned that the engine would go “purty good” now; leastways, he hoped so, for there was nothing more he could do outside of a machine-shop.
From Down the Columbia by Freeman, Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome)
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.