leer

[leer]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR leer ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object)

to look with a sideways or oblique glance, especially suggestive of lascivious interest or sly and malicious intention: I can't concentrate with you leering at me.

noun

a lascivious or sly look.

Origin of leer

1520–30; perhaps v. use of obsolete leer cheek (Middle English leor, Old English hlēor; cognate with Old Norse hlȳr (plural))

Related formsleer·ing·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for leering

stare, eye, smirk, goggle, wink, gloat, ogle, sneer, squint, eyeball

Examples from the Web for leering

Contemporary Examples of leering

While her English classmates were learning to wash their hands, Nadia was worried that the devil was leering at her on the loo.
Want This Woman to Lie About Herself? You Can Just Burq Off!
Moral Courage
March 24, 2014
Michaele asked me privately if she should expect “drunk, old, leering guys” to bother her.
Inside the Salahi Split
Diane Dimond
September 16, 2011
Gone were the shaved head and leering smile from his mug shot released after the shootings.
Should He Be Forced to Take Meds?
Terry Greene Sterling
July 30, 2011
On the Internet, you do, because the leering appears as words on a screen.
The Myth of Online Predators
Lenore Skenazy
April 28, 2009

Historical Examples of leering

His fist shot out, caught the leering guard flush on his chin.
Slaves of Mercury
Nat Schachner
He turned his back after leering terribly as he looked at Gervaise.
L'Assommoir
Emile Zola
He spun round in his amazement and met the leering face of Ayoub.
The Sea-Hawk
Raphael Sabatini
I have stirred up ghosts of the past—leering ghosts, and I hate them.
Possessed
Cleveland Moffett
But now the brute came back, cautiously, crouching and leering.
The Grammar School Boys Snowbound
H. Irving Hancock

British Dictionary definitions for leering

leer

verb

(intr) to give an oblique, sneering, or suggestive look or grin

noun

such a look

Derived Formsleering, adjective, nounleeringly, adverb

Word Origin for leer

C16: perhaps verbal use of obsolete leer cheek, from Old English hlēor

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

Word Origin and History for leering

leer

1590s, from leer (v).

leer

"to look obliquely" (now usually implying "with a lustful or malicious intent"), 1520s, probably from Middle English noun ler "cheek," from Old English hleor "the cheek, the face," from Proto-Germanic *khleuzas "near the ear," from *kleuso- "ear," from PIE root *kleu- "to hear" (see listen). The notion is probably of "looking askance" (cf. figurative development of cheek). Related: Leered; leering.