Word.ws English Dictionary

leer

/ˈlɪː//ˈlɪə̯/

leer verb: to look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent. Also the alternative form of lehr.

Verb (1)

leer (third-person singular simple present leers, present participle leering, simple past and past participle leered)

  1. (intransitive) To 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
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    ogle
  2. (transitive) To 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

Noun (1)

leer (plural leers)

  1. A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.
    • 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....
    • “[…]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
  2. An arch or affected glance or cast of countenance.

Noun (2)

leer (plural leers)

  1. (obsolete) The 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. (obsolete) The face.
  3. (obsolete) One's appearance; countenance.
    • a Rosalind of a better leer than youc. 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...
  4. (obsolete) Complexion; 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...
  5. (obsolete) Flesh; skin.
  6. (UK, dialectal) The flank or loin.

Adjective

leer (comparative more leer, superlative most leer)

  1. (obsolete) Empty; unoccupied; clear.
    • The horse runs leere away without the man.1591, John Harington, Orlando Furioso
  2. (obsolete) Destitute; lacking; wanting.
    Synonyms:
    absent, awanting, bereft of, deficient of, deprived of, destitute of, devoid of, lacking, poor in, robbed of
  3. (obsolete) Faint from lack of food; hungry.
  4. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) Thin; faint.
  5. (obsolete) Having no load or burden; free; without a rider.
    • a leer horse1629 (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...
  6. (obsolete) Lacking sense or seriousness; trifling; frivolous.
    • leer words

Verb (2)

leer (third-person singular simple present leers, present participle leering, simple past and past participle leered)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To teach.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To learn.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Leer

Leer

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

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Leer

Leer

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

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Leer

Leer

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

Also used as

leer is also the alternative form of lehr.

leer meaning in Persian

leer in Persian

to look with sexual desire or malicious intent
نگاه کج کردن

Examples of leer in a sentence

  • 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...
  • 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:
  • Seward”; this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
  • There was a nasty leer upon his face as he stepped close to her and spoke again.1913 December – 1914 March, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “In Durance”, in The Warlord of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg &...

All 21 example sentences with leer

Synonyms of leer

15 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of leer

Forms of leer

Verb
third-person singular presentleers
present participleleering
past participleleered
pastleered
second-person singular present (archaic)leerest
second-person singular past (archaic)leeredst
third-person singular present (archaic)leereth
Noun
pluralleers
alternative formlyre
alternative formlire
alternative formlere

Past tense of leer: leered

Origin of leer

Exact development uncertain, but apparently from a verb *leer (“to make a face, look sideways”), from leer (“cheek, face, profile”).

From Middle English ler, leor (“face, cheek”), from Old English hlēor (“face, cheek, profile”), from Proto-West Germanic *hleuʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hleuzą (“ear, cheek”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlews- (“temple of the forehead, cheek”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). Cognate with Scots lire, lere (“face, appearance, complexion”), Dutch lier (“cheek”), Swedish lyra (“pout”), Norwegian lia (“hillside”), Icelandic hlýr (“the face, cheek, countenance”). Related to Old English hlyst (“sense of hearing, listening”) and hlysnan (“to listen”). More at list, listen.

From Middle English lere, from Old English ġelǣr, *lǣre (“empty, void, empty-handed”), from Proto-Germanic *lēziz, *lēzijaz (“empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *les- (“to collect, pick”). Cognate with Dutch laar (“a clearing in the woods”), German leer (“empty”). Related to Old English lesan (“to gather, collect”). More at lease.

Words formed from leer

Words that rhyme with leer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about leer

What does leer mean?
Leer means to look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.
What is leer in Persian?
Leer in Persian is نگاه کج کردن. See Leer meaning in Persian.
How do you use leer in a sentence?
It was a quarter well stocked with deformed, leering, unkempt and uncombed idiots, who held out hands or caps and begged piteously.
What part of speech is leer?
Leer can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce leer?
Leer is pronounced /ˈlɪə̯/ (UK).
What is the past tense of leer?
The past tense of leer is leered.

Words near leer in the dictionary

  1. Leens
  2. leep
  3. Leeper
  4. Leepers
  5. LEEPs
  6. leer
  7. Leerdil
  8. leere
  9. leered
  10. leerer
  11. leerers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leer (page history and authors); Leer (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.

Last updated:

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

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