slang. Also 9 leary. [? f. LEER a.2 + -Y1.] Wide-awake, knowing, ‘fly.’
1796. Grose’s Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Leery, on one’s guard.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Leary, synonymous with fly.
1817. Sporting Mag., I. 118. Frequently dropping their hands when at leary distance. Ibid. (1820), VI. 80. It was evident to the leary ones that his condition was bad.
1878. [W. H. Thomson], Five Yrs.’ Penal Servitude, iii. 146. A ‘leary look,’ in which fear, defiance, and cunning are mixed up together.
1885. Bazaar, 2 Jan., 1/2. The deep earth bank from a hole in which a leary water rat peeps upward at the terrier.
1893. Oxford Mag., 24 May, 382/2. The leery lawyer simply stepped inside.
Hence Leerily adv., in a leery manner.
1859. Farrar, Julian Home, 242. No, you very leerily managed to make the other fellow shoot him.
