leather

UK/ˈlɛðə//ˈlɛðɚ/

leather noun: a tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise. Also the clipping of fruit leather.

Image: Hasslaebetch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

leather (countable and uncountable, plural leathers)

A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise.
A piece of the above used for polishing.
(colloquial) A cricket ball or football.
- The goalee made a frantic grab as the leather spun clean past him, but he was just a second too late, and Joe had scored for Redcliff.1918, M. M. Guy, Joe Doughty, page 157
(plural) clothing made from the skin of animals, often worn by motorcycle riders.
A good defensive play
- Jones showed good leather to snare that liner.
A punch.
(dated, humorous) The skin.

Adjective

leather (not comparable)

Made of leather.
- Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
Synonyms:

leathern
Referring to one who wears leather clothing (motorcycle jacket, chaps over 501 jeans, boots), especially as a sign of sadomasochistic homosexuality.
Referring to an establishment of familial relations through agreed sexual or romantic deviance.
- Some research has documented the phenomenon of leather families as a form of intentional, chosen families created by members of sexual and gender minority groups, often in the face of biological family rejection and marginalization in society (Bauer, 2010; Hammack et al., 2019; Murphy & Bjorngaard...2021 June 14, Ellora Vilkin, Richard Sprott, “Consensual Non-Monogamy Among Kink-Identified Adults: Characteristics, Relationship Experiences, and Unique Motivations for Polyamory and Open...

Verb

leather (third-person singular simple present leathers, present participle leathering, simple past and past participle leathered)

(transitive) To cover with leather.
- He rose and leathered his Colt as his father came to stand beside him.2015, Rain Trueax, Lands of Fire
(ambitransitive) To form a leathery surface (on).
- By the appearance of his deep suntan, which had leathered his skin, and the calluses that covered his hands, Sheriff Anderson figured the man to be one of the area ranchers.2003, Bonita Wagner, Satan's Choice, page 66
- Some leather and droop like bat wings, others, as the poet Brenda Hillman writes, are 'hung in hashtags'.2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 83
(transitive) To strike forcefully.
- He leathered the ball all the way down the street.
(transitive) To spank or beat with a leather belt or strap.
- My father was very angry with me— -he took and leathered ( beat) me, because I ran away from my school ; for I did run away from my school ; he took and tied me up on a Sunday morning, leathered me a Friday night, and Saturday night : I was stripped naked when he leathered me on Friday night, and...1806, Andrew Kippis, The New Annual Register
- My father was furious with me and reached for the strap. He brutally leathered me with it before sending me to bed for the night.2005, H. Salisbury, Betrayed, →ISBN, page 4

Proper noun capitalized: Leather

Leather

A surname.

Also used as

leather is also the clipping of fruit leather.

leather meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

leather in Hindi

material produced by tanning animal skin: चमड़ा camṛā, चर्म carm

leather in Tamil

material produced by tanning animal skin: தோல் tōl

leather in Marathi

material produced by tanning animal skin: चामडे cāmḍe

leather in Urdu

material produced by tanning animal skin: چَمْڑا camṛā, چَرْم carm

More languagesFewer languages

leather in Bengali: চামড়া camṛa
leather in Telugu: తోలు tōlu
leather in Malayalam: തോൽ tōl, തുകൽ tukal
leather in Kannada: ಚರ್ಮ carma
leather in Punjabi: ਚਮੜਾ camṛā
leather in Gujarati: ચર્મ carma, ચામડું cāmḍũ
leather in Odia: ଚମଡ଼ା, ଚାମଡ଼ା
leather in Sinhala: සම් sam
leather in Nepali: छाला chālā
leather in Pashto: چرم čarm, سختیان saxtyãn, وژن wẑǝn
leather in Tagalog: katad
leather in Arabic: جِلْد jild, جِلْدِيّ jildiyy
leather in Malay: kulit
leather in Indonesian: kulit
leather in Persian: چرمی čarmi
leather in Thai: หนัง nǎng
leather in Vietnamese: da thuộc
leather in Myanmar: သားရေ sa:re

Examples of leather in a sentence

She is not vegan as she eats eggs and wears leather.
I gave the leather of the sofa a pinch, gauging the texture.
He has spent ten years lovingly restoring a rather luxurious tonneau with teak panelling and leather seats.

All 40 example sentences with leather

Synonyms of leather

leathern

Forms of leather

Noun
plural	leathers
Verb
third-person singular present	leathers
present participle	leathering
past participle	leathered
past	leathered

Plural of leather: leathers

Origin of leather

From Middle English lether, from Old English leþer (“leather”), from Proto-West Germanic *leþr, from Proto-Germanic *leþrą (“leather”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸlitrom, *letros, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥tro- (“skin, hide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Leder (“leather”), West Frisian leare (“leather”), Low German Leder (“leather”), Dutch leder, leer (“leather”), German Leder (“leather”), Danish læder (“leather”), Swedish läder (“leather”), Icelandic leður (“leather”). Compare also English fell (“skin, hide, pelt”), film.

English surname, from the noun leather.

Words formed from leather

Words that rhyme with leather

Questions about leather

What does leather mean?: Leather means a tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise.
What is leather in Hindi?: Leather in Hindi is चमड़ा (camṛā), चर्म (carm). See Leather meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is leather?: Leather can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce leather?: Leather is pronounced /ˈlɛðə/ (UK).
What is the plural of leather?: The plural of leather is leathers.

Words near leather in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: leather (page history and authors); Leather (page history and authors); leather (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-leather.ogg.

Cite this entry: “leather.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leather. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.