leer1
[leer]
- 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.
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- a lascivious or sly look.
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Origin of leer1
1520–30; perhaps v. use of obsolete leer cheek (Middle English leor, Old English hlēor; cognate with Old Norse hlȳr (plural))
leer3
[leer]
- lehr.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for leers
Historical Examples
What do I care for public opinion, for gossip, for their leers and whispers?
The Winning ClueJames Hay, Jr.
It was so unlike Glenerne and the leers about the aquarium corner.
Gray youthOliver Onions
She leans forward and leers up into the face of her Prodigal.
Dangerous GroundLawrence L. Lynch
The buccaneers sprang at the terrified women and priests, some with weapons out, others with leers and outstretched arms.
Sir Henry Morgan, BuccaneerCyrus Townsend Brady
He shrugs his shoulders, opens his eyes, leers, and—there is the complete manufactured article.
leer
- (intr) to give an oblique, sneering, or suggestive look or grin
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- such a look
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for leers
leer
n.
1590s, from leer (v).
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leer
v.
"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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper