leer

present singular third person leers · participle present leering · participle past leered · past leered · first person past singular leered · archaic present second person singular leerest · past second person singular leered · archaic past second person singular leeredst · present singular third person leers · archaic present singular third person leereth · past singular third person leered · past plural leered · past subjunctive leered · participle present leering · participle past leered

1. intransitiveTo look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.

   And she looked to Mr. –––– / And leered like a love-sick pigeon.

   1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 86

   4 more examples

   I thought I saw him leer in an ugly way at me while the decanters were going round, but as there was no love lost between us, that might easily be.

   1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXVIII, in Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC

   The Baroness perceived that her entertainer had analyzed material comfort to a sufficiently fine point. And then he possessed the most delightful chinoiseries—trophies of his sojourn in the Celestial Empire: pagodas of ebony and cabinets of ivory; sculptured monsters, grinning and leering on chimney-pieces, in front of beautifully figured hand-screens; […]

   1878 July–October, Henry James, Jr., chapter VI, in The Europeans. A Sketch. […], volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1878, →OCLC, page 246

   It was a quarter well stocked with deformed, leering, unkempt and uncombed idiots, who held out hands or caps and begged piteously.

   1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XVIII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 163

   “Hush! Don’t say that. You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don’t you see that accursed thing leering at us?”

   1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms: ogle

2. transitiveTo entice with a leer or leers.

   But Bertran has been taught the Arts of Court, / To guild a Face with Smiles; and leer a man to ruin.

   1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 6

plural leers

1. A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.

   “[…]I have friends—good friends—like you, Dr. Seward”; this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning.

   1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC

   4 more examples

   Nevertheless humanity stood before him no longer in the pensive sweetness of Italian art, but in the staring and ghastly attitudes of a Wiertz Museum, and with the leer of a study by Van Beers.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXXIX, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC

   “[…]They say he has sold himself to the devil for a pretty face. It’s nigh on eighteen years since I met him. He hasn’t changed much since then. I have, though,” she added, with a sickly leer.

   1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC

   I rose and bade him good-night, with a last impression of him leaning back in his dressing-gown, a sodden cigar-end in the corner of his mouth, his beard all slopped with whisky, and his half-glazed eyes looking sideways after me with the leer of a satyr.

   1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC

   There was a nasty leer upon his face as he stepped close to her and spoke again. I could not hear his words, but her answer came clearly.

   1913 December – 1914 March, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “In Durance”, in The Warlord of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published September 1919, →OCLC

2. An arch or affected glance or cast of countenance.

plural leers · alternative lyre · alternative lire · alternative lere

1. obsoleteThe cheek.

   No ladie (quoth the earle with a lowd voice, and the tears trilling downe his leeres)

   1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC

2. obsoleteThe face.
3. obsoleteOne's appearance; countenance.

   a Rosalind of a better leer than you

   c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

4. obsoleteComplexion; hue; colour.

   Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer. Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father;

   c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

5. obsoleteFlesh; skin.
6. UKdialectalThe flank or loin.

comparative more leer · superlative most leer · alternative lear

1. obsoleteEmpty; unoccupied; clear.

   The horse runs leere away without the man.

   1591, John Harington, Orlando Furioso

   Synonyms: vacant, void, empty, empty as a pauper's purse, empty as the tomb on Easter, clean, toom, unfilled

2. obsoleteDestitute; lacking; wanting.

   Synonyms: absent, awanting, absent, awanting, bereft of, deficient of, deprived of, destitute of

3. obsoleteFaint from lack of food; hungry.
4. UKdialectalobsoleteThin; faint.
5. obsoleteHaving no load or burden; free; without a rider.

   a leer horse

   1629 (first performance), B[en] Jonson, The New Inne. Or, The Light Heart. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Thomas Alchorne, […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

6. obsoleteLacking sense or seriousness; trifling; frivolous.

   leer words

present singular third person leers · participle present leering · participle past leered · past leered

1. obsoletetransitiveTo teach.
2. obsoletetransitiveTo learn.

plural leers

1. alternativeAlternative form of lehr.

1. A town and rural district of Lower Saxony, Germany.

1. A small hamlet in Long Rapids Township, Alpena County, Michigan.

1. A town, the county seat of Leer County, Unity State, South Sudan.
2. A county of Unity State, South Sudan.