leery

1718, “untrustful, suspicious”, either from leer (“sideward look”) +‎ -y, lear (“learning, knowledge”) +‎ -y. More at leer, lear.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪəɹ.i/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪəɹi

leery (comparative leerier, superlative leeriest)

1. Cautious, suspicious, wary, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns.

   Since he was bitten by a dog when he was young, he has always been leery of animals.

   • 1913 October, Jack London, chapter X, in The Valley of the Moon, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC:

     “ […] He was one of their top gun-fighters—always up to his ears in the thick of any fightin' that was goin' on. He never was leery of anything on two feet, I'll say that much for'm.”

   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:

     “He's so darn afraid you'll be offended if he smokes. You scare him. Every time he speaks of the weather you jump him because he ain't talking about poetry or Gertie—Goethe?—or some other highbrow junk. You've got him so leery he scarcely dares to come here.”

2. (of a look or smile) Lecherous.
   • 1902, Francis Hopkinson Smith, chapter X, in The Fortunes of Oliver Horn‎:

     And there was a particularly brutal villain with leery eyes, ugly mouth, with one tooth gone, and an iron jaw like a hull-dog's.

• leerily
• leeriness
• unleery

• Grose [et al.] (1811) “Leery”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. , London: C. Chappell, , →OCLC.

• Eyler, Rylee, reely