leer

verb

1. (intransitive)To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.

   “And she looked to Mr. –––– / And leered like a love-sick pigeon.”

   “I thought I saw him leer in an ugly way at me while the decanters were going round, but as there was no love lost between us, that might easily be.”

   “The Baroness perceived that her entertainer had analyzed material comfort to a sufficiently fine point. And then he possessed the most delightful chinoiseries—trophies of his sojourn in the Celestial Empire: pagodas of ebony and cabinets of ivory; sculptured monsters, grinning and leering on chimney-pieces, in front of beautifully figured hand-screens; […]”

   “It was a quarter well stocked with deformed, leering, unkempt and uncombed idiots, who held out hands or caps and begged piteously.”

   ““Hush! Don’t say that. You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don’t you see that accursed thing leering at us?””

2. (transitive)To entice with a leer or leers.

   “But Bertran has been taught the Arts of Court, / To guild a Face with Smiles; and leer a man to ruin.”

3. (obsolete, transitive)To teach.
4. (obsolete, transitive)To learn.

noun

1. A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.

   “Nevertheless humanity stood before him no longer in the pensive sweetness of Italian art, but in the staring and ghastly attitudes of a Wiertz Museum, and with the leer of a study by Van Beers.”

   ““[…]They say he has sold himself to the devil for a pretty face. It’s nigh on eighteen years since I met him. He hasn’t changed much since then. I have, though,” she added, with a sickly leer.”

   “I rose and bade him good-night, with a last impression of him leaning back in his dressing-gown, a sodden cigar-end in the corner of his mouth, his beard all slopped with whisky, and his half-glazed eyes looking sideways after me with the leer of a satyr.”

   ““[…]I have friends—good friends—like you, Dr. Seward”; this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning.”

   “There was a nasty leer upon his face as he stepped close to her and spoke again. I could not hear his words, but her answer came clearly.”

2. An arch or affected glance or cast of countenance.
3. (obsolete)The cheek.

   “No ladie (quoth the earle with a lowd voice, and the tears trilling downe his leeres)”

4. (obsolete)The face.
5. (obsolete)One's appearance; countenance.

   “a Rosalind of a better leer than you”

6. (obsolete)Complexion; hue; colour.

   “Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer. Look, how the black slave smiles upon the father;”

7. (obsolete)Flesh; skin.
8. (UK, dialectal)The flank or loin.
9. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of lehr.

adj

1. (obsolete)Empty; unoccupied; clear.

   “The horse runs leere away without the man.”

2. (obsolete)Destitute; lacking; wanting.
3. (obsolete)Faint from lack of food; hungry.
4. (UK, dialectal, obsolete)Thin; faint.
5. (obsolete)Having no load or burden; free; without a rider.

   “a leer horse”

6. (obsolete)Lacking sense or seriousness; trifling; frivolous.

   “leer words”

name

1. A town and rural district of Lower Saxony, Germany.
2. A small hamlet in Long Rapids Township, Alpena County, Michigan.
3. A town, the county seat of Leer County, Unity State, South Sudan.
4. A county of Unity State, South Sudan.