leery
1 Americanadjective
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wary; suspicious (usually followed byof ).
I'm leery of his financial advice.
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Archaic. knowing; alert.
adjective
adjective
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dialect knowing or sly
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slang (foll by of) suspicious or wary
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slang rowdy or boisterous
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of leery1
First recorded in 1790–1800; leer 1 + -y 1
Origin of leery2
Explanation
You can use the adjective leery to describe someone who's suspicious of a person or situation. After his brother came out with bald spots and uneven patches of buzz-cut hair, he was leery of having the same barber get near his own head. Being leery is being distrustful. If you're leery, it will probably show on your face and in your posture. You may squint and wrinkle your brows or take a few steps back. If you're leery that someone won't keep a secret, you won't confide in them, and if you're leery about whether they'll keep a promise to you, you won't count on them. Sometimes people are leery because of some proof, but often, just having a bad feeling or instinct is enough to make a person leery.
Vocabulary lists containing leery
The Outsiders
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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This Week in Words: February 12 - 16, 2018
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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.
Related: ‘My husband is leery of my plan’: We are both 60 and have $5 million.
From MarketWatch • May 22, 2026
Meanwhile, India and Brazil have become leery of holding their central-banking reserves in U.S.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026
“I would be a little leery of supposing that it’s a gaming of the system in order to get some unfair advantage,” Vaughn said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026
Yet years of fighting to get police and prosecutors to take his claims seriously made him leery.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 21, 2025
And again: they were as leery of taxing themselves to fight the conservancy district as they were of the conservancy taxes themselves.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
