lechery
Americannoun
-
unrestrained or excessive indulgence of sexual desire.
- Synonyms:
- promiscuity, lust, carnality
-
a lecherous act.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Because Graham and others came forward, Weinstein’s pattern of behavior is impossible to mischaracterize as harmless Hollywood lechery, and Hollywood lechery has become impossible to mischaracterize as harmless.
From Slate • Oct. 11, 2017
Hadleigh Adams emphasized wistful wisdom, not lechery, as Nicomedes.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2017
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
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
Now one cheek has begun to cave in under my eye, the wince of lechery, no doubt, and meteors, no less.
From Voices from the Past by Bartlett, Paul Alexander
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.
