lechery
Americannoun
-
unrestrained or excessive indulgence of sexual desire.
- Synonyms:
- promiscuity, lust, carnality
-
a lecherous act.
noun
Other Word 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.
Photograph: Tristram Kenton Lord Lechery, Madam Wanton and Judas Iscariot: in a flash these names thrust us into the moral chaos of Vanity Fair, that sleazy pit stop on the grand highway to salvation.
From The Guardian • Nov. 11, 2012
Here, again, we have allegorical personages, as Lechery, Luxury, and Curiosity, introduced along with concrete particular characters of Scripture.
From Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. With An Historical Sketch Of The Origin And Growth Of The Drama In England by Hudson, Henry Norman
Sir, it is pride, wrath, and envy, Sloth, covetise, and gluttony, Lechery the seventh is: These seven sins I call folly.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 by Hazlitt, William Carew
Then came Lechery, led by Idleness, with a host of evil companions, "full strange of countenance, like torches burning bright."
From Dreamthorp A Book of Essays Written in the Country by Smith, 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.
