LEE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Lee mean? 

• LEE (noun)
  The noun LEE has 8 senses:

1. United States filmmaker whose works explore the richness of black culture in America (born in 1957)

2. United States striptease artist who became famous on Broadway in the 1930s (1914-1970)

3. United States actor who was an expert in kung fu and starred in martial arts films (1941-1973)

4. United States physicist (born in China) who collaborated with Yang Chen Ning in disproving the principle of conservation of parity (born in 1926)

5. leader of the American Revolution who proposed the resolution calling for independence of the American Colonies (1732-1794)

6. soldier of the American Revolution (1756-1818)

7. American general who led the Confederate Armies in the American Civil War (1807-1870)

8. the side of something that is sheltered from the wind

  Familiarity information: LEE used as a noun is common.

• LEE (adjective)
  The adjective LEE has 1 sense:

1. towards the side away from the wind

  Familiarity information: LEE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

United States filmmaker whose works explore the richness of black culture in America (born in 1957)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Lee; Shelton Jackson Lee; Spike Lee

Instance hypernyms:

film maker; film producer; filmmaker; movie maker (a producer of motion pictures)

Sense 2

Meaning:

United States striptease artist who became famous on Broadway in the 1930s (1914-1970)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Gypsy Rose Lee; Lee; Rose Louise Hovick

Instance hypernyms:

ecdysiast; exotic dancer; peeler; stripper; striptease; striptease artist; stripteaser (a performer who provides erotic entertainment by undressing to music)

Sense 3

Meaning:

United States actor who was an expert in kung fu and starred in martial arts films (1941-1973)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Bruce Lee; Lee; Lee Yuen Kam

Instance hypernyms:

actor; histrion; player; role player; thespian (a theatrical performer)

Sense 4

Meaning:

United States physicist (born in China) who collaborated with Yang Chen Ning in disproving the principle of conservation of parity (born in 1926)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Lee; Tsung Dao Lee

Instance hypernyms:

nuclear physicist (a physicist who specializes in nuclear physics)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Leader of the American Revolution who proposed the resolution calling for independence of the American Colonies (1732-1794)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Lee; Richard Henry Lee

Instance hypernyms:

American Revolutionary leader (a nationalist leader in the American Revolution and in the creation of the United States)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Soldier of the American Revolution (1756-1818)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Henry Lee; Lee; Lighthorse Harry Lee

Instance hypernyms:

soldier (an enlisted man or woman who serves in an army)

Sense 7

Meaning:

American general who led the Confederate Armies in the American Civil War (1807-1870)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Lee; Robert E. Lee; Robert Edward Lee

Instance hypernyms:

full general; general (a general officer of the highest rank)

Sense 8

Meaning:

The side of something that is sheltered from the wind

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

lee; lee side; leeward

Hypernyms ("lee" is a kind of...):

face; side (a surface forming part of the outside of an object)

• LEE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Towards the side away from the wind

Synonyms:

downwind; lee

Similar:

leeward (on the side away from the wind)

 Context examples 

“It’s a lee shore,” I laughed, “and I am sure I’d rather be here than arriving, a night like this.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before we get to Lee.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I can assure you that many times in the course of the evening I wished that I could invent some excuse which would take me back to Lee.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

After that he travelled for some years, and finally he bought a small place called Woodman’s Lee, near Forest Row, in Sussex.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lady Bertram soon brought the matter to a certainty by carelessly observing to Mrs. Norris—I think, sister, we need not keep Miss Lee any longer, when Fanny goes to live with you.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida achieved NCI cancer center designation in 1998 and was awarded NCI comprehensive cancer center designation in 2001.

(H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, NCI Thesaurus)

We stopped under the lee of the lobster-outhouse to exchange an innocent kiss, and went in to breakfast glowing with health and pleasure.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The wind blew freshly from the east, with a very keen edge to it; and the great sail bellied roundly out, laying the vessel over until the water hissed beneath her lee bulwarks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was but sixteen, with his gristle not yet all set into bone, when he fought and beat Gipsy Lee, of Burgess Hill, who called himself the “Cock of the South Downs.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)