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leer

 - 8 dictionary results

leer

1  [leer]
Use leer in a Sentence
–verb (used without object)
1. to look with a sideways or oblique glance, esp. suggestive of lascivious interest or sly and malicious intention: I can't concentrate with you leering at me.
–noun
2. a lascivious or sly look.
Origin:
1520–30; perh. v. use of obs. leer cheek (ME leor, OE hlēor; c. ON hlȳr (pl.))

Related forms:
leer⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

leer

2  [leer]
–adjective British Dialect.
1. having no burden or load.
2. faint for lack of food; hungry.
Origin:
bef. 1050; ME lere, OE gelǣr; c. G leer empty

leer

3  [leer]
–noun
lehr.

lee

1  [lee]
–noun
1. protective shelter: The lee of the rock gave us some protection against the storm.
2. the side or part that is sheltered or turned away from the wind: We erected our huts under the lee of the mountain.
3. Chiefly Nautical. the quarter or region toward which the wind blows.
–adjective
4. pertaining to, situated in, or moving toward the lee.
—Idioms
5. by the lee, Nautical. accidentally against what should be the lee side of a sail: Careless steering brought the wind by the lee.
6. under the lee, Nautical. to leeward.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE hlēo(w) shelter, c. OFris hli, hly, OS hleo, ON hlé

lehr

  [leer, lair]
–noun
an oven used to anneal glass.
Also, leer.

Origin:
1905–10; < G Lehr, Leer model
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To leer
leer   (lîr)   
intr.v.   leered, leer·ing, leers
To look with a sidelong glance, indicative especially of sexual desire or sly and malicious intent.
n.  A desirous, sly, or knowing look.

[Probably from obsolete leer, cheek, from Middle English ler, from Old English hlēor; see kleu- in Indo-European roots.]
leer'ing·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

lee 
O.E. hleo "shelter," from P.Gmc. *khlewo- (cf. O.N. hle, Dan. læ, Du. lij "lee, shelter"); no known cognates outside Gmc.; original sense uncertain and may have been "warm" (cf. Ger. lau "tepid," O.N. hly "shelter, warmth"). Leeward is 1666, "situated away from the wind," opposite of the weather side of the ship; leeway (1669) is sideways drift of a ship caused by wind.

leer  (v.)
"to look obliquely" (now usually implying "with a lustful or malicious intent"), 1530, from M.E. noun ler "cheek," from O.E. hleor "the cheek, the face," from P.Gmc. *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). The noun is first attested 1598.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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