Forms: 1 leðer, 4–5 leder, leþer, (leeder), 4–6 ledder, -yr, 5 ledur, -yr, (letheir), 5–7, 8 Sc. lether(e, 6 Sc. lathir, 7 lather, 6– leather. [OE. leðer (only in compounds, as leðer-hose, weald-leðer bridle) = OFris. leither, leder, lider, leer, OSax. leðar (Du. leder, leer), OHG. ledar (MHG., G. leder), ON. leðr (Sw. läder, Da. læder):—OTeut. *leþrom neut.:—pre-Teut. *létrom, whence Irish leathar, Welsh lledr, Breton ler (earlier lezr).]
I. The simple word.
1. Skin prepared for use by tanning, or some similar process.
American leather, a kind of oil-cloth; ‘an English name for what in the U. S. is called enameled cloth’ (Funk); patent leather, leather having a fine black varnished surface; vegetable leather, a material consisting of a layer or layers of linen on which india-rubber is spread; white leather, leather dressed so as to retain its natural color. For morocco, russia, Spanish, Turkey leather, see the prefixed words.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 324. Þe hund þet fret leðer … me beateð him anonriht.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1581. Alle þat loked on þat letter as lewed þay were As þay had loked in þe leþer of my lyft bote.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 45. So may men go on þe eyre ȝif it be closid wiþinne leþer.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 33. With leder þo mouthe þen schalt þou brynde.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 256. Þe preest schal clothe þe in whyȝt ledyr.
c. 1450. Merlin, 370. Merlin made hem digge depe undir an Oke till thei fonde a vessel of lether.
1464. Inv., in Turner’s Dom. Archit., III. 113. A square standarde, and covered with blaak letheir.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xv. 9. Sovir weid Of curbulȝe or leddyr wyth gylt nalis.
1519. Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading, 7. For a hide of white lether viijd.
1546. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 238. Ane bulget of blak ledder.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 97. Turning of good wine, out of a faire sweete flagon of siluer, into a foule mustie bottell of ledder.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 665. Binde the herbe to the body in Crimson lether, to stop bleeding.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 140. The pennie he causet be cuinȝet of a buffill hyde, to wit of sik kynde of lathir.
1611. Bible, 2 Kings i. 8. Girt with a girdle of leather about his loynes.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 121. We can by squeezing make Water pass through Leather.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 146. When placed in the tan-vats they [hides or skins] become leather.
1893. G. Allen, Scallywag, I. 97. That peculiar sort of deep-brown oil-cloth which is known … as American leather.
fig. 1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., v. 29. Not a cruel man exactly, but a man of leather.
b. pl. Kinds of leather.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts (ed. 4), II. 65. A great variety of leathers in all conditions and states of manufacture is exhibited.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 5 Dec., 3/2. An elementary course on the dressing of skins and more advanced courses on the tanning of heavy and light leathers.
c. Proverbs and proverbial sayings.
1460. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., III. 372. Men cut large thongs here of other men’s lether.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut., cxiii. 696. The common prouerbe which saith that wee cut large thongs of other mens lether.
1767. Fenning, Univ. Spelling Bk., 36. A Currier, being present, said … If you have a Mind to have the Town well fortified and secure, take my Word, there is Nothing like Leather.
1837. Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar (1844), 147. Depend upon it, Sir, there is nothing like leather.
d. Leather and prunella: an expression for something to which one is utterly indifferent.
[This is strictly speaking, a misinterpretation of Pope’s words; the context refers to the difference of rank between the ‘cobbler’ and the ‘parson,’ prunella being mentioned as the material for the clerical gown.]
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 204. Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow: The rest is all but leather and prunella.
1811. Byron, Epitaph J. Blackett. Then who shall say so good a fellow Was only ‘leather and prunella?’
1831. Society, I. 32. A preux chevalier, to whom all others were leather and prunella.
1879. Trollope, Thackeray, 192. The man to whom these delights of American humour are leather and prunello.
2. An article or appliance made of leather, e.g., a strap, a thong; a piece of leather for a plaster or to tighten a tap; the leathern portion of a bellows, or of a pump-sucker. Upper leather: see UPPER.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 199. Herof þou schalt plane vpon a leþer, & leie it to þe lyme þat is forseid.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B vj. Thessame letheris that be putt in hir bellis.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 237. Coueryng & settyng the Newe ledders vnto the seid Bellowes.
c. 1500. Melusine, ix. 39. At both thendes of the said thonge or leder shal spryng out of the Roche a fayre fontayne.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xc. 285. He … stretched him so in his styrropes that ye lethers streyned out thre fyngers.
1586. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 22. Item given for the leather which it [the bell clapper] hings, iiijd.
1607. Markham, Caval., II. (1617), 75. Those … thrustings forward with your legges, stirrops and leathers.
1702. T. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 82. The [friction of the] others are vastly encreased by the Leathers of their Suckers.
1703. Art & Myst. Vintners, 38. Take a course harden Cloth, and put it before the Bore … then put in your Leathers.
1731. Beighton in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 9. When the Leathers [of a pump] grow too soft, they are not capable of sustaining the Pillar to be raised.
1852. R. F. Burton, Falconry Indus, iv. 47, note. Bewits are leathers and bells buttoned round the shank.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. xii. They … endeavoured to have a game of billiards … with curious cues that had no leathers.
b. pl. Articles for wear made of leather, e.g., shoes, slippers, leggings, breeches. Hence colloq. ‘leathers’ as a name for one who wears leather breeches or leggings.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xix. ‘Out of the vay, young leathers.’
1841. Lever, C. O’Malley, iv. 24. His own costume of black coat, leathers and tops was in perfect keeping.
a. 1845. Hood, Agric. Distress, vi. He taps his leathers with his stick.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xx. ‘Jump in, old boy—go it, leathers!’
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 1317. Carried pick-a-back … Big-baby-fashion, lest his leathers leak!
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 152. They … came in the full glory of pink and leathers.
1887. I. R., Lady’s Ranche Life in Montana, 64. A great big man with a beard, dressed in white leathers and jack-boots.
1894. Conan Doyle, S. Holmes, 56. I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was wearing.
c. Cricket and Football. The ball.
1868. Box, Theory & Pract. Cricket, 22. They [the French] can see no delight in … getting in the way of ‘leather.’
1882. Daily Tel., 17 May, 3/7. Spofforth resigned the leather to Boyle.
1896. A. E. Housman, Shropshire Lad, xxvii. Is football playing…, With lads to chase the leather, Now I stand up no more?
3. Skin. Now only slang. To lose leather; to suffer abrasion of skin. Also, † a bag or pouch of skin.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3451. Þan wete men neuere, wheþer ys wheþer, Þe ȝelughe wymple or þe leþer [glossed skyn].
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1360. Þe lyuer & þe lyȝtez, þe leþer of þe paunchez.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 269. Whanne a mannes bowels falliþ into his ballokis leþeris.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 186. Whann she was deed, here frendys sowedyn [here] in hertys ledyr.
c. 1500. Melusine, x. 41. As moche of grounde as the hyde or leder of a hert shall mow comprehende.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., C ij b. How many maners of skynnes or lether are there…. Two, one is entrynsyke or outforth, and that is proprely called lether.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1879), 37. Did the Lord cloth our first parents in leather?
1726. Swift, To Earl P-b-w, Misc. 1735, V. 63. Returning sound in Limb and Wind, Except some Leather lost behind.
1807. Sir R. Wilson, Jrnl., 15 May, in Life (1862), II. vii. 214. Others came on slowly to save their horses and their native leather.
1883. G. Stables, Our Friend the Dog, vii. 60. Leather—the skin, generally applied to that of the ear.
1884. J. Colborne, Hicks Pasha, 50. Most of us, to use the hunting term, were ‘losing leather’ rapidly.
II. attrib. and Comb.
4. simple attrib., passing into adj. Consisting or made of leather, or of a material resembling it.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 117/3. Bulgæ, leper-coddas.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 89. Leder bagges.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, V. iii. 134. Lether bagges or satchels, to cary powder behind men on horsebacke.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. v. 48. His cold thinne drinke out of his Leather Bottle. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., I. i. 7. Where is thy Leather Apron, and thy Rule?
1607. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., II. ii. Wks. 1878, II. 61. Lether-hindges to a dore.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 146. Their Flesh is hardly digested of a weak Stomach, and their Leather Coat not easily of a strong.
1683. (title of song) The Leather Bottèl.
1862. Borrow, Wild Wales (ed. 2), 67. Policemen … in their blue coats and leather hats.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 159. Leather gloves, saddles and harness.
b. Some combs. of the above type occur attrib.
1658. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm. (1669), 91/2. A poor Leather-coat Christian will shame and catechize a hundred of them.
1665–6. Answ. Fr. Declar. War, in Harl. Misc., II. 479. A fig for France, or any that accords With those Low-country leather-apron lords.
1723. True Briton, No. 10. I. 85. When you … consented to use your utmost Efforts for chusing Two proper Sheriffs in Opposition to a Majority of Livery Men, and to stretch your Pocket among Leather-Apron Stentors.
1769. Dublin Merc., 16–19 Sept., 2/2. Chairs and settee … leather-bottom chairs.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 486. The so-called ‘leather-bottle stomach.’
1900. Everybody’s Mag., III. 497/2. Wool cards—leather back implements set with wire teeth.
5. General combs. a. attributive as leather-merchant, -work; also leather-like adj.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., VII. xxxvii. (1602), 182. My limber wings … were *Leather-like vnplum’de.
1776. Mendes da Costa, Conchol., 121. A … toughish coriaceous or leather-like substance.
1851. Richardson, Geol. (1855), 433. A soft, leather-like mouth, capable of protrusion and retraction.
1861. Sat. Rev., 3 Aug., 114/1. Great *leather-merchants.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. VII. 222. Tychius, skilled beyond all other men In *leather-work.
b. objective, as leather-cutter, -dresser, -dyer, -gilder, † -parer, -seller, -stainer, -worker; leather-cutting, -dressing, -stitching. Also in the names of implements used in the manufacture or preparation of leather: as leather-polisher, -softener, -stretcher, -stuffer.
1804. W. Tennant, Ind. Recreat., II. 195. Chumars, or *leather cutters.
1889. T. Hardy, Mayor of Casterbr., iv. The class of objects displayed in the shop-windows, scythes … at the ironmongers … at the glover’s and leather cutter’s hedging-gloves [etc.].
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 220. Do you really … know … carpentering and *leather-cutting?
1611. Cotgr., Megissier,… a Fellmonger, a *Leather-dresser.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib., I. xxvi. 134. When the skins came in from the leather-dressers they were washed in a tub of cold water.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B., 11. Pardoners, kynges benche gatherers, and *lether dyers.
1692. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 566. Three clippers seized … one a *leather gilder.
1725. Lond. Gaz., No. 6403/4. Joseph Woolley,… *Leather-Pairer.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B., 9. Bokeler makers, dyers, and *lether sellers.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. l. (1862), IV. 356. Kleon, the leather-seller.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 515. Mr. Bailey,… *leather-stainer.
1891. S. C. Scriverer, Our Fields & Cities, 53. Allotments for shoemakers to dig, after ten hours of *leather-stitching per diem.
1891. E. Kinglake, Australian at H., 81. The French *leather-workers have discovered the capabilities of their [kangaroos’] skins.
c. instrumental, as leather-bound, -covered adjs.
1894. H. Gardener, Unoff. Patriot, 124. He reached up and took down a *leather-bound volume.
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 102. A *leather-covered seat.
d. parasynthetic derivatives (often with similative meaning), as leather-complexioned, -eared, -legginged, -lunged, -skinned, -winged adjs.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. xiii. (Rtldg.), 16. That little swarthy, *leather-complexioned Adonis.
1682. Heraclitus Ridens, No. 61 (1713), II. 128. Twelve *Leather-ear’d Disciples might have been found in the Vicinage.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xix. Here the *leather-leggined boy laughed very heartily.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 48. First comes a velveteen-jacketed, leather-legginged keeper.
1833. W. P. Scargill, Puritan’s Grave, I. 50. The ruder shoutings of the *leather-lunged rabble.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 304. The Provence Olives are … more *leather skin’d, yet better for the Stomach than the Spanish.
1896. Mrs. B. M. Croker, Village Tales, 18. An active, leather-skinned man.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 36. The *lether-winged batt, dayes enimy.
6. Special combs., leather-back, a large soft-shelled turtle, Sphargis coriacea; leather-bark, a tree of the genus Thymelæa; leather-board, a composition of leather scraps, paper, etc., glued together and rolled into sheets, used in shoemaking (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); leather-carp, a scaleless variety of the carp; leather-cloth, cloth coated on one side with a waterproof varnish; leather-coat, a name for russet apples, from the roughness of their skin; leather-flower, a North American climbing-plant (Clematis Viorna) with thick leathery purplish sepals; leather-head, (a) slang, a blockhead; (b) Austral. the friar-bird; leather-headed a., stupid, slow-witted; hence leather-headedness; leather-hungry, † (a) some variety of leather; (b) dial. skim-milk cheese; leather-hunting Cricket slang (cf. sense 2 c), fielding; † leather-kersner [MHG. kürsenære, G. kürschner skinner] a pelterer; leather-leaf, a low evergreen shrub of the northern U.S. (Cassandra calyculata), with coriaceous leaves (Treas. Bot., Suppl., 1874); leather-man, a leather-seller; leather-mill (see quot. 1727–52); leather-mouthed a., having a leather-like mouth (see quots.); leather-neck, a sailor’s name for a soldier, from the leather stock he used to wear; leather-paper, paper having a surface resembling that of leather; leather-plant, a composite plant of the genus Celmisia, a native of New Zealand (Treas. Bot., Suppl., 1874); leather-turtle = leather-back; leather-wing, a name for a bat; leather-wood, (a) a North American shrub of the genus Dirca, with a very tough bark; (b) a Tasmanian wood of a pale reddish mahogany color, Eucryphia billardieri (Morris). Also LEATHER-JACKET.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., *Leather-back.
1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., iv. 260. The Leather-back Turtles, whose carapace is not covered with scales of shell, but with a dense coriaceous skin.
1751. J. Bartram, Observ. Trav. Pennsylv., etc. 28. Abundance of *leather-bark or thymelea, which is plentiful in all this part of the country.
1880–4. F. Day, Brit. Fishes, II. 159. The *leather-carp, Cyprinus nudus, C. alepidotus, C. coriaceus, or C. nudus, in which scales are absent, but the skin is very much thickened.
1857. Mech. Mag., 4 April, 321. A singularly close and valuable imitation [of leather] known as ‘Crockett’s *Leather Cloth.’
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. iii. 44. There is a dish of *Lether-coats for you.
1676. Worlidge, Cyder (1691), 203. The Leather-Coat or Golden-Russeting, as some call it, is a very good Winter-Fruit.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Leather-flower, Clematis Viorna.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Leather-head, a Thick-skull’d, Heavy-headed Fellow.
1847. L. Leichhardt, Overland Exped., xii. 461. The Leatherhead with its constantly changing call and whistling.
1860. G. Bennett, Gatherings. Nat., x. 233. Among the Honey-suckers is that singular-looking bird, the Leatherhead, or Bald-headed Friar (Tropidorhyncus corniculatus).
a. 1668. Davenant, News fr. Plymouth, Wks. (1673), 20. What a *Leather-headed Dunce Am I, to ask thee.
1876. ‘Mark Twain,’ Tramp Abr. (1880), I. 206. His *leather-headedness is the point I make against him.
1478–9. Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 646. Sol. pro corrio de *ledderhungry, iiijs.
1530. Palsgr., 238/2. Lether hungrye, cvir bovlly.
1804. R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball., 103. Wi’ scons, leather-hungry, and whusky.
1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, xxvii. 178. Occasionally, in summer, there are days when … the pastime of *‘leather hunting’ becomes somewhat tiresome.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 19 June, 7/1. The Westerners had a long day’s leather hunting at Lord’s yesterday.
1226. in Gilbert, Hist. & Munic. Doc. Ireland (Rolls), 83. Reginaldus le *letherkersnere.
1624. in Gross, Gild Merch., II. 12. There have hitherto been three Companies in the town, those of the Drapers, *Leathermen, and Firemen.
1727–52. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Mill, *Leather-Mills are used to scour, and prepare with oil, the skins of stags, buffaloes, elks, bullocks, &c. to make what they call buff-leather, for the use of the soldiery.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 362/1. There is also a flour and leather mill.
1653. Walton, Angler, ii. 55. By a *leather mouthed fish, I mean such as have their teeth in their throat, as the Chub or Cheven, and so the Barbel [etc.].
1757. Lisle, Husbandry, II. 155. I told him the ewes were leather-mouthed with thick lips.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 9. Such fishes as have teeth thus placed far back upon the palate and upper part of the throat while they want them in their jaws, are termed by anglers leather-mouthed.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Jan., 2/1. He [the sailor] despises his friend the *leather-neck for a lazy and luxurious dog.
1890. Hosie, W. China, 153. That famous tough paper which … is wrongly called *‘leather’ paper. The mistake is pardonable, for the character which means ‘leather’ also means ‘bark.’ The paper is made from the fibrous inner bark of the Broussonetia papyrifera.
1884. Goode, etc., Fish. Industr. U.S., I. 147. The so-called *‘Leather Turtle,’ or ‘Luth,’ or ‘Trunk Turtle.’
1851. Gosse, Nat. in Jamaica, 298. The little nimble *Leather-wings pursue their giddy play in security.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. *Leather-wood, Dirca.
1882. Garden, 8 April, 232/3. The Leather-wood … now in flower, though not showy, is interesting.
