leather
[ leth -er ]
/ ˈlɛð ər /
noun
adjective
pertaining to, made of, or resembling leather: leather processing; leather upholstery.
Slang. catering to or patronized by customers who typically wear leather clothing, often as a means of signaling interest in or preference for sadomasochistic sexual activity.
verb (used with object)
to cover or furnish with leather.
Informal. to beat with a leather strap.
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Wednesday Winner: CoriaceousToday’s Word of the Day was chosen by Jan of Todos Santos, Mexico who had no idea what it meant when she first came across it. Coriaceous means “of or like leather.” Do you own anything that is coriaceous? Submit your favorite word here and it could be chosen as one of our Word of the Day selections!
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- least weasel,
- least-worst,
- leastways,
- leastwise,
- leat,
- leather beetle,
- leather jack,
- leather star,
- leather-bottle stomach,
- leather-hard
Origin of leather
before 1000; Middle English lether, Old English lether- (in compounds); cognate with Dutch, German leder, Old Norse lethr, MIr lethar skin, leather, Welsh lledr, Middle Breton lezr leather
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for leather
leather
/ (ˈlɛðə) /
noun
- a material consisting of the skin of an animal made smooth and flexible by tanning, removing the hair, etc
- (as modifier)leather goods Related adjectives: coriaceous, leathern
(plural) leather clothes, esp as worn by motorcyclists
the flap of a dog's ear
verb (tr)
to cover with leather
to whip with or as if with a leather strap
Word Origin for leather
Old English lether- (in compound words); related to Old High German leder, Old Norse lethr-
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
leather
Old English leðer (in compounds only) "hide, skin, leather," from Proto-Germanic *lethran (cf. Old Norse leðr, Old Frisian lether, Old Saxon lethar, Middle Dutch, Dutch leder, Old High German ledar, German leder), from PIE *letro- "leather" (cf. Old Irish lethar, Welsh lledr, Breton lezr). As an adjective from early 14c.; it acquired a secondary sense of "sado-masochistic" 1980s, having achieved that status in homosexual jargon in the 1970s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
leather
see hell-bent for leather.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.