leere

See also: Leere and leeré

English

Etymology

Uncertain.

Noun

leere

1. (obsolete) A tape or braid; an ornament.
2. (obsolete) A layer.
   • 1623, Charles Butler, The Feminine Monarchie, Or the Historie of Bees:

     And then if it be before Mid-Cancer,& the hony-weather hold; your best way is to double the stall, by turning the skirt of the Hiue vpward, and setting a leere prepared Hiue fast vpon it: into which they will ascend, and worke and tbreed there as well as in the old,

   • 1639, Gabriel Plattes, A Discovery of Subterraneall Treasure, page 46:

     First, make an hole in the earth with very good tempered clay that will hold water, and let it be narrow in the bottome, and wider and wider above to the toppe to the breadth of 2 or 3 or 4 yards; then fill the Pit with water & lay over it barres of iron of sufficient strength and thicknesse to beare the burden that must lye upon it; and let them lye so neare together that the stones & wood cannot fal through: then lay thereupon a leere of drye wood, and a leere of your red stone not broken small, and so doe againe till it be a yard thick or more, then give fire to it on the wind side, and goe a-way out of the danger of the fumes, till you see a far off that the fire is finished and burned quite out.

   • 1655, Samuel Hartlib, Samuel Hartlib His Legacy of Husbandry, page 200:

     If when winter is past Corn be very cheap, then would I have all the richest Farmers, who are able to forbear their money, to thrash up the most part of their other Corn, and to take down the foresaid Rick, and to make it up again with a leere of threashed Corn, with chaffe and all together, by which meanes he may lay up a wonderfull great quantity in a little room, and have his Straw for his present use, and withall the poorer sort of Farmers may have a better sale for their Corn to pay their rents withall.

3. (obsolete) A look or glance.
   • 1658, Richard Brome, The New Academy, Or, the New Exchange, page 173:

     I gave a leere With that same eye that made her turne her whites up.

   • 1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, page 112:

     Pursuing my Voyage through the City, and casting a Leere into the Shops of the Rich Drapers, Mercers, and Lacemen, I saw them haunted by many People in Want, especially young Heirs newly at Age, and Spendthrifts, that came to borrow Money of them.

   • 1795, William Mainwaring, “Memoirs of Sir William Mainwaring of Westchester”, in Godolphin Waldron, ‎Sylvester Harding, editor, The Biographical Mirrour, page 40:

     Heere I meete with many of my old acquaintance, and with Sam Tuke every hower of a day almost; a word hath not paste betwixte us; sometimes a leere.

4. (obsolete) A joke or jest; a bit of comedy.
   • 1633, A Banquet of Jests, page 145:

     A leere put upon the Father by his Sonne.

   • 1678, Thomas D'Urfey, Trick for Trick: Or, The Debauch'd Hypocrite, page 5:

     Cell. You Wit, Sir, will be better imploy'd anotther way; Come Cousin, let's go listen to the Gentleman, no doubt, we shall find a great reformation.
     Hyl. Why, look ye Gentlemen, this is alwayes my damn'd luck, Pox on't, they won't allow me so much as a Leere; but hush —here comes the Monfieur.

   • 1750, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair:

     Instead of a little Davy, to take toll o'the Bawds, the Author doth promise a strutting Horse-courser with a Leere-drunkard, two or three to attend him, in as good Equipage as you would wish.

Derived terms

• leere side

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “leere”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• eeler

Estonian

Noun

leere

1. partitive plural of leer

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːʁə/
• Homophone: Lehre

Etymology 1

Adjective

leere

1. inflection of leer:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Etymology 2

Verb

leere

1. inflection of leeren:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

Hunsrik

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːrə/

Verb

leere

1. to teach

Further reading

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary