leery
/ˈlɪəɹi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈlɪːɹɪj/
leery adjective: cautious, suspicious, wary, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns.
Adjective
leery (comparative leerier, superlative leeriest)
- Cautious, suspicious, wary, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns.
- Since he was bitten by a dog when he was young, he has always been leery of animals.
- “[…]He was one of their top gun-fighters—always up to his ears in the thick of any fightin' that was goin' on. He never was leery of anything on two feet, I'll say that much for'm.”1913 October, Jack London, chapter X, in The Valley of the Moon, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC
- Sly; artful; knowing.
- Leering; lecherous or unpleasant.
- And there was a particularly brutal villain with leery eyes, ugly mouth, with one tooth gone, and an iron jaw like a hull-dog's.1902, Francis Hopkinson Smith, chapter X, in The Fortunes of Oliver Horn
leery meaning in Urdu and Malayalam
leery in Urdu
- چالاک, مشتبہ
leery in Malayalam
- cautious, wary, careful
- കൗശലമുള്ള, സൂത്രബുദ്ധിയുള്ള, കരുതലുള്ള, അവധാനതയോടെയുള്ള, സൂക്ഷ്മതയുള്ള, ജാഗരൂകമായ
Forms of leery
| comparative | leerier |
|---|---|
| superlative | leeriest |
| alternative form | leary |
Origin of leery
First attested in 1718, “untrustful, suspicious”, either from leer (“sideward look”) + -y, lear (“learning, knowledge”) + -y. More at leer, lear.
Words formed from leery
Words that rhyme with leery
Questions about leery
- What does leery mean?
- Leery means cautious, suspicious, wary, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns.
- What is leery in Urdu?
- Leery in Urdu is چالاک, مشتبہ. See Leery meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is leery?
- Leery is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce leery?
- Leery is pronounced /ˈlɪəɹi/ (UK).
Words near leery in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leery (page history and authors); leery (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); leery (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-leery.wav.
Cite this entry: “leery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.