Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use leer in a sentence

21 example sentences · verb, noun, adjective

Leer means to look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent. Example: “They really laughed when he did Clinton, with a perfect accent and a leer.”

Examples of leer by meaning

nounA significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous...

  • 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 &...

More sentences with leer

  • They really laughed when he did Clinton, with a perfect accent and a leer.From the entry do
  • That creepy old man keeps leering at me!From the entry creepy
  • Jacey felt a surge of ewphoria at the bar when a couple of drunken old men leered at her.From the entry ewphoria
  • A yellow, viraginous caricature of Hillary Clinton leered out from a black background.2008 May 18, Peggy Orenstein, “The Hillary Lesson”, in New York Times. From the entry viraginous
  • "Thought you'd seen the last of me, dincha, girlie?" Clay Larsson leered down at Shane and me.2001, Jenny Carroll, Code Name Cassandra. From the entry dincha
  • Bo John leered into the door mirror, clocking her flouncing, leggy strut.2000, Phil Austin, Naugahide Days: The Lost Island Stories of Thomas Wood Briar, page 109. From the entry clock
  • Jealous and full of anger, they leered as the soft song of the scop praised the All-Powerful.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 20. From the entry scop
  • I leer over the freestanding pile of apples.2022, Vanessa Krauss, “Evening”, in Thin, JMS Books LLC, →ISBN. From the entry red delicious
  • Her scenes . . . frequently feature daffy but spectral creatures and leering ghouls with top hats and canes.2014 October 23, Roberta Smith, “Art & Design: Genieve Figgis: ‘Good Morning, Midnight’”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 Jul 2015. From the entry inherent vice
  • The creaseless horizontal face of the giant smiled sickly, leering.2010, Rowan Somerville, chapter 9, in The End of Sleep, New York: Norton, page 66. From the entry sickly
  • I know you notice how they leer at you.”2005, Janice Sims, “A Love Supreme”, in Can I get an Amen, BET, →ISBN, page 75. From the entry wolf call
  • Leering, the four men closed around her.2001, Catherine Spangler, Shamara. From the entry funbag
  • Encircling the marble altar was a congregation of leering shamen.1970, Jim Theis, “The Eye of Argon”, in OSFAN, volume 10, Chapter 3½, page 33. From the entry age
  • Joolby, addressing himself to his prospective customer but turning to favour the scandalised Parkinson with an implicatory leer.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London. From the entry implicatory
  • And the row of human captors, ever leering, They who caged me, Know their power and gloat on my captivity.1923, Animal World: An Advocate of Humanity, page 33. From the entry cage
  • So I decided to put on my seediest voice and leer, and go round offering the traders the Cole line in cheap hooky goods.2016, Alan Tootill, Cole and the Clairvoyant, page 45. From the entry hooky
  • The room into which I was ushered, with its leering volutes and hideous bellyings of brown mahogany, intimately reminded me of a Beardsley drawing.1926, Violet Hunt, “1910-11”, in The Flurried Years, London: Hurst & Blackett, page 161. From the entry bellying
  • Little D spun on his sealskin mukluked heel and came charging back to join me at the window with, I swear, a positively evil leer on his face.2012, CloudDancer, CloudDancer's Alaskan Chronicles Volume IV, page 150. From the entry mukluked
  • It may be painful to remember that the latter day Elvis, he of the Las Vegas leer, became a besequined Jabba the Hutt, a virtual caricature of himself.1992 February 26, “Which Elvis goes on stamp”, in The Milwaukee Sentinel. From the entry Jabba the Hutt
  • “Well, old Foll was in that bar, as full as a goog.” Mr Jennings leered with the delight that seeing old Foll full as a goog had brought him.1974, Brian James., The Advancement of Spencer Button, page 95. From the entry full as a goog

Meaning of leer

  1. verb To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.
  2. verb To entice with a leer or leers.
  3. noun A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.

Full definition of leer

Questions about leer in a sentence

How do you use leer in a sentence?
Leer is used as a verb, noun and adjective. For example: “They really laughed when he did Clinton, with a perfect accent and a leer.”
What is a short sentence with leer?
“Leering, the four men closed around her.”
What does leer mean?
Leer means to look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leer (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use leer in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/leer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.