Definition of "leal"

Mr Toots, like the leal and trusty soul he was, stopped the cabriolet in a twinkling, and told Susan Nipper of his commission, at which she cried more than before.

1848, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son

We thank you for the pure white fire of his goodness, for the red sword of justice in his hand, for the love he bears his leal people.

2000, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 858

The lealest lover time can show, / Doomed for a lady-love to languish, / Among these solitudes doth go, / A prey to every kind of anguish.

1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “In which are Continued the Refinements wherewith Don Quixote Played the Part of a Lover in the Sierra Morena”, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […] In Four Vols, volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co. […], part I, page 30