leer
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Exact development uncertain, but apparently from a verb *leer (“to make a face, look sideways”), from leer (“cheek, face, profile”).
Inflected forms:
form: leers
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: leering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: leer
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: leer
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: leer
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: leerest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: leeredst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: leers
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: leereth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: leer
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: leer
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: leer
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: leering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: leered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: leers
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: And she looked to Mr. –––– / And leered like a love-sick pigeon.
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.
The Baroness perceived that her entertainer had analyzed material comfort to a sufficiently fine point. And then he possessed the most delightful chinoiseries—trophies of his sojourn in the Celestial Empire: pagodas of ebony and cabinets of ivory; sculptured monsters, grinning and leering on chimney-pieces, in front of beautifully figured hand-screens; […]
It was a quarter well stocked with deformed, leering, unkempt and uncombed idiots, who held out hands or caps and begged piteously.
“Hush! Don’t say that. You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don’t you see that accursed thing leering at us?”
gloss: To entice with a leer or leers.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: But Bertran has been taught the Arts of Court, / To guild a Face with Smiles; and leer a man to ruin.
gloss: A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
“[…]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.
I rose and bade him good-night, with a last impression of him leaning back in his dressing-gown, a sodden cigar-end in the corner of his mouth, his beard all slopped with whisky, and his half-glazed eyes looking sideways after me with the leer of a satyr.
“[…]I have friends—good friends—like you, Dr. Seward”; this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning.
There was a nasty leer upon his face as he stepped close to her and spoke again. I could not hear his words, but her answer came clearly.
gloss: An arch or affected glance or cast of countenance.
pos: noun
Derived words: leeringly
leery
Translations: