lease

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
lease/liːs/

▶noun a contract by which one party conveys land, property, services, etc. to another for a specified time. ▶verb

• 1 grant (property) on lease; let.

• 2 take (property) on lease; rent.

– phrases
a new lease of (or N. Amer. on) life a substantially improved prospect of life or use after rejuvenation or repair.

– derivatives
leasable adjective.

– origin ME: from OFr. lais, leis, from lesser, laissier ‘let, leave’, from L. laxare ‘make loose’, from laxus ‘loose, lax’.