'To cast the lead' definitions:

Definition of 'To cast the lead'

From: GCIDE

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 82. Atomic weight, 207.2. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide. [1913 Webster]
2. An article made of lead or an alloy of lead; as: (a) A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea. (b) (Print.) A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing. (c) Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs; hence, pl., a roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates. [1913 Webster]
I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top. --Bacon [1913 Webster]
3. A small cylinder of black lead or graphite, used in pencils. [1913 Webster]
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 (a) (Med.) A dark line along the gums produced by a deposit of metallic lead, due to lead poisoning. (b) (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. (a) (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous tree, Leuc[ae]na glauca; -- probably so called from the glaucous color of the foliage. (b) (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. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'To cast the lead'

From: GCIDE

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. [1913 Webster]
Uzziah prepared . . . slings to cast stones. --2 Chron. xxvi. 14. [1913 Webster]
Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. --Acts. xii. 8. [1913 Webster]
We must be cast upon a certain island. --Acts. xxvii. 26. [1913 Webster]
2. To direct or turn, as the eyes. [1913 Webster]
How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me! --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. To drop; to deposit; as, to cast a ballot. [1913 Webster]
4. To throw down, as in wrestling. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
5. To throw up, as a mound, or rampart. [1913 Webster]
Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee. --Luke xix. 48. [1913 Webster]
6. To throw off; to eject; to shed; to lose. [1913 Webster]
His filth within being cast. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Neither shall your vine cast her fruit. --Mal. iii. 11 [1913 Webster]
The creatures that cast the skin are the snake, the viper, etc. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
7. To bring forth prematurely; to slink. [1913 Webster]
Thy she-goats have not cast their young. --Gen. xxi. 38. [1913 Webster]
8. To throw out or emit; to exhale. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
This . . . casts a sulphureous smell. --Woodward. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
10. To impose; to bestow; to rest. [1913 Webster]
The government I cast upon my brother. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Cast thy burden upon the Lord. --Ps. iv. 22. [1913 Webster]
11. To dismiss; to discard; to cashier. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
The state can not with safety cast him. [1913 Webster]
12. To compute; to reckon; to calculate; as, to cast a horoscope. "Let it be cast and paid." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
You cast the event of war, my noble lord. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
13. To contrive; to plan. [Archaic] [1913 Webster]
The cloister . . . had, I doubt not, been cast for [an orange-house]. --Sir W. Temple. [1913 Webster]
14. To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict; as, to be cast in damages. [1913 Webster]
She was cast to be hanged. --Jeffrey. [1913 Webster]
Were the case referred to any competent judge, they would inevitably be cast. --Dr. H. More. [1913 Webster]
15. To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide; as, a casting voice. [1913 Webster]
How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious! --South. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
17. (Print.) To stereotype or electrotype. [1913 Webster]
18. To fix, distribute, or allot, as the parts of a play among actors; also to assign (an actor) for a part. [1913 Webster]
Our parts in the other world will be new cast. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
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. (a) To throw away; to lavish; to waste. "Cast away a life" --Addison. (b) To reject; to let perish. "Cast away his people." --Rom. xi. 1. "Cast one away." --Shak. (c) 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. (a) To discard or reject; to drive away; to put off; to free one's self from. (b) (Hunting) To leave behind, as dogs; also, to set loose, or free, as dogs. --Crabb. (c) (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. (a) To throw up; to raise. (b) To compute; to reckon, as the cost. (c) To vomit. (d) To twit with; to throw in one's teeth. [1913 Webster]