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• lee
  lee

  noun

  protective shelter.
• Lee
  Lee

  noun

  Ann, 1736–84, British mystic: founder of Shaker sect in the United States.

lee

¹ American  

[lee] / li /

noun

1. protective shelter.

   The lee of the rock gave us some protection against the storm.

2. the side or part that is sheltered or turned away from the wind.

   We erected our huts under the lee of the mountain.

3. Chiefly Nautical. the quarter or region toward which the wind blows.

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adjective

1. pertaining to, situated in, or moving toward the lee.

idioms

1. by the lee, accidentally against what should be the lee side of a sail.

   Careless steering brought the wind by the lee.

2. under the lee, to leeward.

Lee ² American  

[lee] / li /

noun

1. Ann, 1736–84, British mystic: founder of Shaker sect in the United States.

2. Charles, 1731–82, American Revolutionary general, born in England.

3. Doris Emrick 1905–1986, U.S. painter.

4. Fitzhugh 1835–1905, U.S. general and statesman (grandson of Henry Lee; nephew of Robert E. Lee).

5. Francis Lightfoot 1734–97, American Revolutionary statesman (brother of Richard H. Lee).

6. Gypsy Rose Rose Louise Hovick, 1914–70, U.S. entertainer.

7. Harper, 1926–2016, U.S. novelist.

8. Henry Light-Horse Harry, 1756–1818, American Revolutionary general (father of Robert E. Lee).

9. Kuan Yew 1923–2015, Singapore political leader: prime minister 1959–90.

10. Manfred Bennington Ellery Queen, 1905–71, U.S. mystery writer, in collaboration with Frederic Dannay.

11. Richard Henry, 1732–94, American Revolutionary statesman (brother of Francis L. Lee).

12. Robert E(dward), 1807–70, U.S. soldier and educator: Confederate general in the American Civil War (son of Henry Lee).

13. Sir Sidney, 1859–1926, English biographer and critic.

14. Spike Shelton Jackson Lee, born 1957, U.S. film director, screenwriter, and actor.

15. Tsung-Dao born 1926, Chinese physicist in the United States: Nobel Prize 1957.

16. a town in western Massachusetts: part of the Berkshire resort area.

17. a male or female given name.

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Lee ¹ British  

/ liː /

noun

1. Ang (æŋ). born 1954, Taiwanese film director; his films include Sense and Sensibility (1995), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Life of Pi (2012)

2. Bruce, original name Lee Yuen Kam . 1940–73, US film actor and kung fu expert who starred in such films as Enter the Dragon (1973)

3. Gypsy Rose, original name Rose Louise Hovick . 1914–70, US striptease and burlesque artiste, who appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies (1936) and in films

4. Laurie (ˈlɒrɪ). 1914–97, British poet and writer, best known for the autobiographical Cider with Rosie (1959)

5. Richard Henry. 1732–94, American Revolutionary statesman, who moved the resolution in favour of American independence (1776)

6. Robert E ( dward ). 1807–70, American general; commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies in the Civil War

7. Spike, real name Shelton Jackson Lee. born 1957, US film director: his films include She's Gotta Have It (1985), Malcolm X (1992), and the documentary When the Leeves Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2008)

8. T ( sung ) -D ( ao ) (tsuːŋ daʊ). born 1926, US physicist, born in China. With Yang he disproved the principle that that parity is always conserved and shared the Nobel prize for physics in 1957

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lee ² British  

/ liː /

noun

1. a sheltered part or side; the side away from the direction from which the wind is blowing

2. nautical so that the wind is blowing on the wrong side of the sail

3. nautical towards the lee

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adjective

1. (prenominal) nautical on, at, or towards the side or part away from the wind Compare weather

   on a lee shore

Lee ³ British  

/ liː /

noun

1. a river in SW Republic of Ireland, flowing east into Cork Harbour. Length: about 80 km (50 miles)

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Etymology

Origin of lee

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English hlēo(w) “shelter covering, protection,” cognate with Old Frisian hli, hly, Old Saxon hleo, Old Norse hlé

Example Sentences

"When I saw Jerry lee Lewis I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen apart from Little Richard - and then I saw Elton," he says.

From BBC • Aug. 22, 2025

The winds developed as a strong low pressure zone intensified in the lee of Rocky Mountains.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 31, 2021

It’s twilight and you’re hurrying toward a safe anchorage at the lee of one of these islands, where you and the boat captain and his two sons, who constitute his crew, can sleep the night.

From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2020

“The holloway is absence,” Macfarlane explains; “a wood-way worn away by buried feet. … Walking, running, hiding man, huddled in the lee of a tree.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 20, 2020

They make for the lee of the ramparts, both of them staggering like drunks.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Related Words

• border
• bottom
• face
• front
• hand
• part
• rear
• sector
• surface
• top
• view