lechery
Americannoun
plural
lecheries-
unrestrained or excessive indulgence of sexual desire.
- Synonyms:
- promiscuity, lust, carnality
-
a lecherous act.
noun
Etymology
Origin of lechery
1200–50; Middle English lecherie < Old French. See lecher, -y 3
Explanation
Lechery is a noun applied to a person's feelings that are lustful or sexual in an extreme or unnatural way. A person's lechery may lead to wrong and unlawful physical acts or attacks on others, or to the making and viewing of inappropriate pictures and movies. Someone described as a "pervert" might also be called a lecher, whose offensive behavior and actions are lechery. Attraction between a husband and wife would not be lechery, because it's between two people who have a desire together. Lechery is a one-sided lust that crosses the line to being inappropriate and making others feel very uncomfortable or even afraid. Bad guys or "Casanovas" in literature demonstrate lechery when they try to win over innocent young women with lies.
Vocabulary lists containing lechery
The Crucible
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Catherine, Called Birdy
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Cat's Cradle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The solution was Verdon herself: She transforms an out-of-step ode to lechery into a revisionist two-hander about the sexism of memory, history, and show business.
From Slate • Apr. 8, 2019
He looks upon the Trojan War, and all the warriors who risk their lives in it, with a vision that strips all noble motives away and sees only lechery, roguery, and knavery.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 9, 2016
In Chinese, much like in English, “wolf” has several negative connotations, from gluttony to lechery.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 4, 2014
She has dressed up as the Countess, and what Figaro overhears nearby as Susanna's acquiescence to the Count's lechery is in reality a song for him, a hymn to love's simple joys.
From The Guardian • Feb. 14, 2013
Thais is a symbol of lechery; Sinon of fraud; Judas of treason; Homer of lying fiction.
From Sonnets by Symonds, John Addington
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
