What is "to cast the lead"

Lead \Lead\ (l[e^]d), n. [OE. led, leed, lead, AS. le['a]d; akin to D. lood, MHG. l[=o]t, G. loth plummet, sounding lead, small weight, Sw. & Dan. lod. [root]123.]

1. (Chem.) One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished. It is both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets, etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible (melting point 327.5[deg] C), forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 8

2. Atomic weight, 207.2. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide. 2. An article made of lead or an alloy of lead; as:

   1. A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea.

   2. (Print.) A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.

   3. Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs; hence, pl., a roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates.

      I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top.
      --Bacon

3. A small cylinder of black lead or graphite, used in pencils. Black lead, graphite or plumbago; -- so called from its leadlike appearance and streak. [Colloq.] Coasting lead, a sounding lead intermediate in weight between a hand lead and deep-sea lead. Deep-sea lead, the heaviest of sounding leads, used in water exceeding a hundred fathoms in depth. --Ham. Nav. Encyc. Hand lead, a small lead use for sounding in shallow water. Krems lead, Kremnitz lead [so called from Krems or Kremnitz, in Austria], a pure variety of white lead, formed into tablets, and called also Krems white, or Kremnitz white, and Vienna white. Lead arming, tallow put in the hollow of a sounding lead. See To arm the lead (below). Lead colic. See under Colic. Lead color, a deep bluish gray color, like tarnished lead. Lead glance. (Min.) Same as Galena. Lead line

   1. (Med.) A dark line along the gums produced by a deposit of metallic lead, due to lead poisoning.

   2. (Naut.) A sounding line. Lead mill, a leaden polishing wheel, used by lapidaries. Lead ocher (Min.), a massive sulphur-yellow oxide of lead. Same as Massicot. Lead pencil, a pencil of which the marking material is graphite (black lead). Lead plant (Bot.), a low leguminous plant, genus Amorpha ( Amorpha canescens), found in the Northwestern United States, where its presence is supposed to indicate lead ore. --Gray. Lead tree.

      1. (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous tree, Leuc[ae]na glauca; -- probably so called from the glaucous color of the foliage.

      2. (Chem.) Lead crystallized in arborescent forms from a solution of some lead salt, as by suspending a strip of zinc in lead acetate.

         Mock lead, a miner's term for blende.

         Red lead, a scarlet, crystalline, granular powder, consisting of minium when pure, but commonly containing several of the oxides of lead. It is used as a paint or cement and also as an ingredient of flint glass.

         Red lead ore (Min.), crocoite.

         Sugar of lead, acetate of lead.

         To arm the lead, to fill the hollow in the bottom of a sounding lead with tallow in order to discover the nature of the bottom by the substances adhering.
         --Ham. Nav. Encyc.

         To cast the lead, or To heave the lead, to cast the sounding lead for ascertaining the depth of water.

         White lead, hydrated carbonate of lead, obtained as a white, amorphous powder, and much used as an ingredient of white paint.

Cast \Cast\ (k[.a]st), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cast; p. pr. & vb. n. Casting.] [Cf. Dan. kaste, Icel. & Sw. kasta; perh. akin to L. gerere to bear, carry. E. jest.]

1. To send or drive by force; to throw; to fling; to hurl; to impel.

   Uzziah prepared . . . slings to cast stones.
   --2 Chron. xxvi. 14.

   Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.
   --Acts. xii. 8.

   We must be cast upon a certain island.
   --Acts. xxvii. 26.

2. To direct or turn, as the eyes.

   How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me!
   --Shak.

3. To drop; to deposit; as, to cast a ballot.

4. To throw down, as in wrestling.
   --Shak.

5. To throw up, as a mound, or rampart.

   Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee.
   --Luke xix. 48.

6. To throw off; to eject; to shed; to lose.

   His filth within being cast.
   --Shak.

   Neither shall your vine cast her fruit.
   --Mal. iii. 11

   The creatures that cast the skin are the snake, the viper, etc.
   --Bacon.

7. To bring forth prematurely; to slink.

   Thy she-goats have not cast their young.
   --Gen. xxi. 3

8. 8. To throw out or emit; to exhale. [Obs.]

   This . . . casts a sulphureous smell.
   --Woodward.

9. To cause to fall; to shed; to reflect; to throw; as, to cast a ray upon a screen; to cast light upon a subject.

10. To impose; to bestow; to rest.

    The government I cast upon my brother.
    --Shak.

    Cast thy burden upon the Lord.
    --Ps. iv. 22.

11. To dismiss; to discard; to cashier. [Obs.]

    The state can not with safety cast him.

12. To compute; to reckon; to calculate; as, to cast a horoscope. ``Let it be cast and paid.''
    --Shak.

    You cast the event of war, my noble lord.
    --Shak.

13. To contrive; to plan. [Archaic]

    The cloister . . . had, I doubt not, been cast for [an orange-house].
    --Sir W. Temple.

14. To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict; as, to be cast in damages.

    She was cast to be hanged.
    --Jeffrey.

    Were the case referred to any competent judge, they would inevitably be cast.
    --Dr. H. More.

15. To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide; as, a casting voice.

    How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious!
    --South.

16. To form into a particular shape, by pouring liquid metal or other material into a mold; to fashion; to found; as, to cast bells, stoves, bullets.

17. (Print.) To stereotype or electrotype.

18. To fix, distribute, or allot, as the parts of a play among actors; also to assign (an actor) for a part. Our parts in the other world will be new cast. --Addison. To cast anchor (Naut.) See under Anchor. To cast a horoscope, to calculate it. To cast a horse, sheep, or other animal, to throw with the feet upwards, in such a manner as to prevent its rising again. To cast a shoe, to throw off or lose a shoe, said of a horse or ox. To cast aside, to throw or push aside; to neglect; to reject as useless or inconvenient. To cast away.

    1. To throw away; to lavish; to waste. ``Cast away a life''
       --Addison.

    2. To reject; to let perish. ``Cast away his people.''
       --Rom. xi. 1. ``Cast one away.''
       --Shak.

    3. To wreck. ``Cast away and sunk.'' --Shak. To cast by, to reject; to dismiss or discard; to throw away. To cast down, to throw down; to destroy; to deject or depress, as the mind. ``Why art thou cast down. O my soul?'' --Ps. xiii. 5. To cast forth, to throw out, or eject, as from an inclosed place; to emit; to send out. To cast in one's lot with, to share the fortunes of. To cast in one's teeth, to upbraid or abuse one for; to twin. To cast lots. See under Lot. To cast off.

       1. To discard or reject; to drive away; to put off; to free one's self from.

       2. (Hunting) To leave behind, as dogs; also, to set loose, or free, as dogs.
          --Crabb.

       3. (Naut.) To untie, throw off, or let go, as a rope. To cast off copy, (Print.), to estimate how much printed matter a given amount of copy will make, or how large the page must be in order that the copy may make a given number of pages. To cast one's self on or To cast one's self upon to yield or submit one's self unreservedly to, as to the mercy of another. To cast out, to throw out; to eject, as from a house; to cast forth; to expel; to utter. To cast the lead (Naut.), to sound by dropping the lead to the bottom. To cast the water (Med.), to examine the urine for signs of disease. [Obs.]. To cast up.

          1. To throw up; to raise.

          2. To compute; to reckon, as the cost.

          3. To vomit.

    4. To twit with; to throw in one's teeth.