lear

• (General American) IPA^(key): /lɪɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /lɪə/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /liə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /liːɹ/
• (East Anglia, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /lɛː/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophones: leer; lair (cheer–chair merger)

From Middle English laire, leire, lere, northern Middle English variants of lore, loare (“doctrine, teaching, lore”), from Old English lār (“lore”). More at lore.

lear (countable and uncountable, plural lears)

1. (now Scotland) Something learned; a lesson.
2. (now Scotland) Learning, lore; doctrine.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: ">…] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     when all other helpes she saw to faile, / She turnd her selfe backe to her wicked leares / And by her deuilish arts thought to preuaile .

   • 1836, Joanna Baillie, Witchcraft, act 3, page 100:

     'Foul befa' him and his lear too! It maun be o' some new-fangled kind, I think. Our auld minister had lear enough, baith Hebrew and Latin, and he believed in witches and warlocks, honest man, like ony ither sober, godly person.'

   • 1898, Francis James Child, editor, Lord William, or Lord Lundy, Child's Ballads:

     They dressed up in maids' array,
     And passd for sisters fair;
     With ae consent gaed ower the sea,
     For to seek after lear.

From Middle English learen, leren (“to learn", also "to teach”).

lear (third-person singular simple present lears, present participle learing, simple past and past participle leared)

1. (transitive, archaic and Scotland) To teach.
2. (intransitive, archaic) To learn.

See lehr.

lear (plural lears)

1. Alternative form of lehr.

• Arel, Earl, Elar, Lare, Rael, Raël, Real, earl, lare, rale, real

• liar

From Old Galician-Portuguese liar (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), ultimately from Latin ligāre. Compare Spanish liar.

• IPA^(key): /leˈaɾ/

lear (first-person singular present leo, first-person singular preterite leei, past participle leado)
lear (first-person singular present leio, first-person singular preterite leei, past participle leado, reintegrationist norm)

1. (transitive) to wrap, coil

   Synonym: envurullar

2. (transitive) to link

   Synonym: ligar

3. (transitive) to entangle

   Synonyms: enlear, enredar

4. (transitive) to roll (a cigarette)
5. (pronominal) to wrestle, fight

   Synonyms: enlear, loitar, rifar, punar, barallar, desortir

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “liar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “liar”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “lear”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• “lear”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “lear”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “lear”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

• IPA^(key): /l̠ʲaɾˠ/

From Old Irish ler, from Proto-Celtic *liros. Cognate with Welsh llŷr.

lear m (genitive singular lir)

1. (literary or archaic, except in phrases) sea, ocean

• thar lear (“overseas”)

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 ler”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “lear”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 426
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “lear”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

lear m (genitive singular lear, nominative plural learanna)

1. (mental) defect

   Tá lear air.

   He's wrong in the head, he's touched.

• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “lear”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “lear”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

lear (nominative plural lears)

1. olive tree

From Middle English lere, from Old English *lǣre, gelǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *lāʀi, *lāʀī.

• IPA^(key): /lɛːr/

lear

1. empty
   • 1867, “VERSES IN ANSWER TO THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 100:

     At ye mye ne'er be wooveless ta vill a lear jock an cooan.

     That you may never be unprovided to fill an empty jack and can.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) 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, published 1867, page 52