Word.ws English Dictionary

bearleaders

bearleaders is the plural of bearleader.

Meaning of bearleader

Noun

bearleader (plural bearleaders)

  1. (historical) Someone who handles and keeps bears, especially for use in public entertainments such as bearbaiting or dancing displays; a bearward.
    Synonyms:
    bearherd, bear warden
  2. (broadly, historical) Someone acting as a chaperone and tutor to a wealthy young man travelling abroad, especially in Europe.
    • So!—you have really undertaken the delightful office of bear-leader—becauſe the brother of your Geraldine cannot take care of himſelf— […]1792, Charlotte Smith, “Letter II. To Mr. Desmond.”, in Desmond. […], volume I, London: […] G[eorge,] G[eorge,] J[ohn] and J[ames] Robinson, […], →OCLC, page 13
  3. (broadly, historical, humorous, obsolete, rare) A captor; also, a guard, a jailer.
    • My bear-leaders were considerably surprised with my firmness, but seemed to think it beneath them to contest with me the principles I delivered. […] They left me abruptly; having first ordered an old man, the father of the landlady, to stay in the room with me while they were absent.1794, William Godwin, chapter VI, in Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams. […], volume III, London: […] B. Crosby, […], →OCLC, page 114

Forms of bearleaders

alternative formbear-leaders
alternative formbear leaders

Questions about bearleaders

What is bearleaders the plural of?
Bearleaders is the plural of bearleader.

Words near bearleaders in the dictionary

  1. bearish
  2. bearishly
  3. bearishness
  4. bearkind
  5. bearleader
  6. bearleaders
  7. bearleap
  8. bearleaps
  9. bearless
  10. bearlessness
  11. bearlet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bearleaders (page history and authors); bearleader (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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