leather definition

English leather definition

Etymology

From Middle English lether, from Old English leþer (“leather”), from Proto-West Germanic *leþr, from Proto-Germanic *leþrą (“leather”), borrowing from Proto-Celtic *ɸlitro-, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥tro-.

Cognate with West Frisian leare (“leather”), Low German Leder (“leather”), Dutch leder, leer (“leather”), German Leder (“leather”), Danish læder (“leather”), Swedish läder (“leather”), Icelandic leður (“leather”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛðə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛðɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛðə(ɹ)

Noun

leather (countable and uncountable, plural leathers)

1. A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing.
2. A piece of the above used for polishing.
3. (colloquial) A cricket ball or football.
   • 1918, M. M. Guy, Joe Doughty (page 157)

     The goalee made a frantic grab as the leather spun clean past him, but he was just a second too late, and Joe had scored for Redcliff.

4. (plural: leathers) clothing made from the skin of animals, often worn by motorcycle riders.
5. (baseball) A good defensive play

   Jones showed good leather to snare that liner.

6. (boxing) A punch.
7. (dated, humorous) The skin.

Hyponyms

(types of leather): chagrin, cordovan, cordwain, galuchat, maroquin, morocco, morocco leather, shagreen, sharkskin, taw

Translations

Adjective

leather (not comparable)

1. Made of leather.

   Synonym: leathern

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

2. Referring to one who wears leather clothing (motorcycle jacket, chaps over 501 jeans, boots), especially as a sign of sadomasochistic homosexuality.

Translations

Verb

leather (third-person singular simple present leathers, present participle leathering, simple past and past participle leathered)

1. (transitive) To cover with leather.
3. (transitive) To strike forcefully.

   He leathered the ball all the way down the street.

4. (transitive) To beat with a leather belt or strap.
   • 1806, Andrew Kippis, The New Annual Register:

     My father was very angry with me— -he took and leathered ( beat) me, because I ran away from my school ; for I did run away from my school ; he took and tied me up on a Sunday morning, leathered me a Friday night, and Saturday night : I was stripped naked when he leathered me on Friday night, and Saturday; my father told me to strip myself, and he leathered me, it was with a whip; but I do not know where he got the whip; he tied me with my arms extended so -- (spreading out her arms to their extremity, as if they were to be nailed upon a cross) -- My legs were tied too -- I was at the bottom of the dresser.

   • 2005, H. Salisbury, Betrayed, →ISBN, page 4:

     My father was furious with me and reached for the strap. He brutally leathered me with it before sending me to bed for the night.

   • 2011, Agnes Owens, Agnes Owens: The Complete Novellas, →ISBN:

     Anyway, bums were always on view in our family, getting leathered with a heavy belt.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• Tar Heel, Tarheel, haltere, lethera

Yola leather definition

Verb

leather

1. Alternative form of luther

References

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 55