| English Dictionary |
LEER (leer)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Dictionary entry overview: What does leer mean?
• LEER (noun)
The noun LEER has 2 senses:
1. a facial expression of contempt or scorn; the upper lip curls
2. a suggestive or sneering look or grin
Familiarity information: LEER used as a noun is rare.
• LEER (verb)
The verb LEER has 1 sense:
1. look suggestively or obliquely; look or gaze with a sly, immodest, or malign expression
Familiarity information: LEER used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A facial expression of contempt or scorn; the upper lip curls
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Synonyms:
leer; sneer
Hypernyms ("leer" is a kind of...):
contempt; scorn (open disrespect for a person or thing)
Derivation:
leer (look suggestively or obliquely; look or gaze with a sly, immodest, or malign expression)
leery (openly distrustful and unwilling to confide)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A suggestive or sneering look or grin
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("leer" is a kind of...):
aspect; expression; face; facial expression; look (the feelings expressed on a person's face)
Derivation:
leer (look suggestively or obliquely; look or gaze with a sly, immodest, or malign expression)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it leers Past simple: leered
Past participle: leered
-ing form: leering
Sense 1
Meaning:
Look suggestively or obliquely; look or gaze with a sly, immodest, or malign expression
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Context example:
The men leered at the young women on the beach
Hypernyms (to "leer" is one way to...):
look (perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
leer (a suggestive or sneering look or grin)
leer (a facial expression of contempt or scorn; the upper lip curls)
Context examples
“Is this here table for my mate Bill?” he asked with a kind of leer.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I wonder now, when I recall his leer, that I did not collar him, and try to shake the breath out of his body.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Joe read it with a drunken, quizzical leer.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
And all this with such a sneering, leering, insolent face that I would have knocked him down twenty times over if he had been a man of my own age.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“If your cask is leer, I warrant your purse is full, gaffer,” shouted Hordle John.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I have friends—good friends—like you, Dr. Seward; this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
After dinner, her son took his turn; and when Mr. Wickfield, himself, and I were left alone together, leered at me, and writhed until I could hardly bear it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
With those words, he retired, kissing his great hand, and leering at us like a mask.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The suddenness with which he dropped it, when he perceived that it was useless to him; the malice, insolence, and hatred, he revealed; the leer with which he exulted, even at this moment, in the evil he had done—all this time being desperate too, and at his wits' end for the means of getting the better of us—though perfectly consistent with the experience I had of him, at first took even me by surprise, who had known him so long, and disliked him so heartily.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
His chin was cocked over the coachman's shoulder, so near to me, that his breath quite tickled the back of my head; and as I looked at him, he leered at the leaders with the eye with which he didn't squint, in a very knowing manner.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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