lead on

"Lead on" is an idiomatic expression commonly used in English to describe misleading someone or guiding them, often with ulterior motives.

Definition

B2Relationships

(informal, idiomatic)To give someone false hope of a romantic relationship.

Example

  • He led her on for months, making her think he was interested in a serious relationship.

B2General

(informal, idiomatic)To deceive someone by making them believe something untrue.

Example

  • The salesman led me on about the car's condition.

B1Guidance

(neutral, idiomatic)To guide or direct someone to a specific place or along a particular route.

Example

  • She led us on through the maze of streets.

C1Development

(British, formal)To cause one event or action to result in another.

Example

  • The initial findings led on to further research.

Similar

Terms that have similar or relatively close meanings to "lead on":

lead outlead inlead offlead the waytake the leadstrike a leadlet onlead by the noselead astraylead up toeat leadlean onlead with one's chinlead climbinglean inlean towardslead in one's pencilblack leadrun aheadmove aheadkeep aheadgo aheadlean intoleading lightleadoff hittergo ontake pointlead crystalleading stringsget ahead oftrail behindstart offset the pacetake the conmarch onbring on