Noah Webster
Leading
LE'ADING, participle present tense
1. Guiding; conducting; preceding; drawing; alluring; passing life.
2. adjective Chief; principal; capital; most influential; as a leading motive; a leading man in a party.
3. showing the way by going first.
He left his mother a countess by patent, which was a new leading example.
LE'ADING, noun Guidance; the act of conducting; direction.