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leather

nounadjectiveverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈlɛðə//
  • United States//ˈlɛðɚ//
  • Australia//ˈleðə//
  • Scotland//ˈlɛðəɾ//
  • //ˈlʌðəɹ//

A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise.

noun

  1. 1

    A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise.

  2. 2

    A piece of the above used for polishing.

  3. 3

    A cricket ball or football.

    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. 4

    clothing made from the skin of animals, often worn by motorcycle riders.

  5. 5

    A good defensive play

    Jones showed good leather to snare that liner.

  6. 6

    A punch.

  7. 7

    datedThe skin.

  8. 8

    Variant of fruit leatherClipping of fruit leather.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *letrosbor. Proto-Germanic *leþrą Proto-West Germanic *leþr Old English leþer Middle English lether English leather From Middle English lether, from Old English leþer (“leather”), from Proto-West Germanic *leþr, from Proto-Germanic *leþrą (“leather”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸlitrom, *letros, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥tro- (“skin, hide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Leder (“leather”), West Frisian leare (“leather”), Low German Leder (“leather”), Dutch leder, leer (“leather”), German Leder (“leather”), Danish læder (“leather”), Swedish läder (“leather”), Icelandic leður (“leather”). Compare also English fell (“skin, hide, pelt”), film.

adjective

  1. 1

    Made of leather.

    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. 2

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

  3. 3

    Referring to an establishment of familial relations through agreed sexual or romantic deviance.

verb

  1. 1

    To cover with leather.

    He rose and leathered his Colt as his father came to stand beside him.

  2. 2

    To form a leathery surface (on).

    By the appearance of his deep suntan, which had leathered his skin, and the calluses that covered his hands, Sheriff Anderson figured the man to be one of the area ranchers.

    Some leather and droop like bat wings, others, as the poet Brenda Hillman writes, are 'hung in hashtags'.

  3. 3

    To strike forcefully.

    He leathered the ball all the way down the street.

  4. 4

    To spank or beat with a leather belt or strap.

    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.

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

Forms

plural
leathers
past tense
leathered
past participle
leathered
present participle
leathering
third person singular
leathers
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).