leister

Syllables: lei·ster/ˈliːstə/US/ˈlistɚ/

leister noun: a spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish, particularly salmon.

Noun

leister (plural leisters)

A spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish, particularly salmon.
- The methods of catching the ſalmon in this pariſh are ſimilar to thoſe deſcribed in the ſtatiſtical account of Dornock, p. 15. excepting that there is no raiſe-net fiſhing, and that the leiſter is only about 10 or 12 feet long, conſequently better calculated for throwing to any diſtance.1792, William Wright, “Number XII. Parish of Newabbey. (Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.)”, in John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland. […], volume II, Edinburgh: Printed and sold by William...
- Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed.1843, William Scrope, chapter IX, in Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing in the Tweed; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 199–200
Synonyms:

waster

Verb

leister (third-person singular simple present leisters, present participle leistering, simple past and past participle leistered)

(transitive) To catch or spear (fish) with a leister.
- We once knew a notorious salmon poacher, who, on one of his excursions, saw a pair of salmon spawning in a stream. He leistered the male from the side of the female, and as soon as she missed her partner, she retired from the spawning-bed into the pool below the ford, and very soon returned with...1848, Andrew Young, The Natural History & Habits of the Salmon, […], Wick, Caithness: Published by Peter Reid. …, →OCLC, page 17
- You are quite correct, sir, […] in what you say about the quantity of oil in the heads of these fish [gurnets or gurnards]. […] [T]he heads [of the fish are] placed with their mouths upward, and a small quantity of tow placed in each mouth. When they [the poachers] reach the stream where they are...1865, [Walter Frederick Campbell], “A Norman Breakfast and a Stroll”, in John Francis Campbell, editor, Life in Normandy: Sketches of French Fishing, Farming, Cooking, Natural History and Politics...

Proper noun capitalized: Leister

Leister (plural Leisters)

A surname.

leister meaning in Tamil

leister in Tamil

கவைமுனை மீனெறி வேல்

Examples of leister in a sentence

The shaft parts taper slightly upwards, have rounded outer surfaces and flat or slightly concave inner surfaces which are adapted to the shape of the leister pole.2004, Jørgen Skaarup, “Artefacts”, in Jørgen Skaarup, Ole Grøn, translated by Anne Bloch Jøorgensen and David Earle Robinson, Møllegabet...
Sometimes also a single head, thus prepared and dried, is fixed at the end of a stick, and is used as a torch, when a poacher goes leistering single-handed.1865, [Walter Frederick Campbell], “A Norman Breakfast and a Stroll”, in John Francis Campbell, editor, Life in Normandy: Sketches of...

Synonyms of leister

waster

Forms of leister

Noun
plural	leisters
alternative form	lister
Verb
third-person singular present	leisters
present participle	leistering
past participle	leistered
past	leistered
Proper noun
plural	Leisters

Origin of leister

From earlier leyster, lister, perhaps via Middle English *lēster, *līster, from Old Norse ljóstr (“leister”), from ljósta (“to smite, strike; to hit, strike (with an arrow or spear)”), from Proto-Germanic *leustaną (“to hit, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *lew-s- (“to loosen (by knocking)”); the word is cognate with Danish lyster (“fish spear, gig, leister”), Icelandic ljósta (“to hit, strike”), Norwegian Bokmål lyster (dialectal Norwegian lioster), Swedish ljuster.

Words formed from leister

clodding leister
leisterer
leistering

Words that rhyme with leister

Questions about leister

What does leister mean?: Leister means a spear armed with three or more barbed prongs for catching fish, particularly salmon.
What is leister in Tamil?: Leister in Tamil is கவைமுனை மீனெறி வேல். See Leister meaning in Tamil.
How do you use leister in a sentence?: The shaft parts taper slightly upwards, have rounded outer surfaces and flat or slightly concave inner surfaces which are adapted to the shape of the leister pole.
What part of speech is leister?: Leister can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce leister?: Leister is pronounced /ˈliːstə/ (UK).
What is the plural of leister?: The plural of leister is leisters.

Words near leister in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: leister (page history and authors); Leister (page history and authors); Leister (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-leister.wav.

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