Exact development uncertain, but apparently from a verb *leer (“to make a face, look sideways”), from leer (“cheek, face, profile”).
Meanings
A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.
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. 1913 December – 1914 March, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “In Durance”, in The Warlord of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published September 1919, →OCLC:
“[…]I have friends—good friends—like you, Dr. Seward”; this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning. 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
“[…]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:
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. 1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:
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., […], →OCLC:
An arch or affected glance or cast of countenance.
bg похотлив поглед (a sly or lecherous look) · ga claonfhéachaint (a sly or lecherous look) · de anzügliches Grinsen (a sly or lecherous look) · cs chlípný pohled (a sly or lecherous look) · cy cilwen (a sly or lecherous look) · de lüsterner Blick (a sly or lecherous look) · ru косо́й взгляд (a sly or lecherous look)
Exact development uncertain, but apparently from a verb *leer (“to make a face, look sideways”), from leer (“cheek, face, profile”).
Meanings
(intransitive) To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.
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:
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; […] 1878 July–October, Henry James, Jr., chapter VI, in The Europeans. A Sketch. […], volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1878, →OCLC, page 246:
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 Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 163:
“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?” 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:
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:
(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:
nl lonken (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · nl wellustig bekijken (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · ru смотре́ть с вожделе́нием (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · de schielen (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fi silmäillä (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · it guardare di traverso (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · lv lūrēt (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · eo okulumaĉi (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · lv glūnēt (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · grc κατιλλώπτω (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · eo rigardaĉi (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · de anzüglich blicken (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · ru ко́со смотре́ть (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fi mulkaista (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · cs (chlípně) pošilhávat (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fr mater (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · pl patrzeć pożądliwie (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · hu stírol (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fa نگاه کج کردن (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fr lorgner (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · he פָּזַל (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fr zieuter (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent) · fi mulkoilla (to look with sexual desire or malicious intent)
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.
Meanings
(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:
(obsolete) The face.
(obsolete) One's appearance; countenance.
a Rosalind of a better leer than you c. 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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
(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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
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.
Meanings
(obsolete) Empty; unoccupied; clear.
The horse runs leere away without the man. 1591, John Harington, Orlando Furioso:
(obsolete) Destitute; lacking; wanting.
(obsolete) Faint from lack of food; hungry.
(UK, dialectal, obsolete) Thin; faint.
(obsolete) Having no load or burden; free; without a rider.
a leer horse 1629 (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 the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
(obsolete) Lacking sense or seriousness; trifling; frivolous.
From Middle English leren, from Old English lǣran (“to teach, instruct, guide, enjoin, advise, persuade, urge, preach, hand down”), from Proto-West Germanic *laiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *laizijaną (“to teach”), from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“track, footprint, furrow, trace”). Cognate with Dutch leren (“to teach, to learn”), German lehren (“to teach”), Swedish lära (“to teach”). Related to Old English lār (“lore, learning, science, art of teaching, preaching, doctrine, study, precept, exhortation, advice, instigation, history, story, cunning”). See lore.