1843 J. J. Jarves Hist. Hawaiian Islands iii. 65 Garlands of flowers, necklaces of shells, and leis, beautiful wreaths fabricated from red or yellow feathers, encircled the limbs of the females.

1883 W. H. D. Adams Mountains & Mountain-climbing 300 These crimson tassels, deftly strung on thread or fibres, are much used by the natives for their leis, or garlands.

1905 A. R. H. Moncrieff World of To-day IV. 208 Bedecked by leis, garlands of bright flowers or feathers.

1956 J. Masters Bugles & Tiger xxii. 292 The garlands round my neck [at Honolulu] were called leis but they smelled much the same as the ones in India.

1966 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 25 Oct. (1970) 434 There were more ‘Blue Ladies’—Mrs. Marcos' hostess committee—with fragrant leis of sampaguita for each of the First Ladies.

1970 N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon xiv. 364 Jan Armstrong was wearing a carnation lei sent by friends in Hawaii.

1975 Times 2 May 7 (caption) Governor George Ariyoshi welcoming the Queen to Hawaii with a lei of orchids.

1929 W. P. Yetts Catal. George Eumorfopoulos Coll. I. 47 The lei are large vessels from which wine or water was poured into smaller.

1946 L. Bachhofer Short Hist. Chinese Art 33 The lei was a large p'ou.

1958 W. Willetts tr. K. Huan in Chinese Art I. iv. 192 Nowadays the wealthy go in for [lacquer vessels with] silver rims and gilt handles, gold lei, and bells of jade.

1978 New Archaeol. Finds in China II. 20 The bronzes tsun (wine containers), lei (wine containers) and pien chung (a chime of bells) were shaped like those in the Central Plains.