Peer vs Leer - What's the difference?
peer | leer |
To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
* Shakespeare
* Coleridge
* 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
* 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6
to come in sight; to appear.
* Shakespeare
* Ben Jonson
Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).
* Dryden
* Isaac Taylor
# Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
A noble with a hereditary title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.
* Milton
A comrade; a companion; an associate.
* Spenser
to make equal in rank.
(Internet) To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.
To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.
To entice with a leer or leers.
* (Dryden)
A significant side glance; a glance expressive of some passion, as malignity, amorousness, etc.; a sly or lecherous look.
An arch or affected glance or cast of countenance.
(obsolete) The cheek.
(obsolete) The face.
(obsolete) One's appearance; countenance.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) Complexion; hue; blee; colour.
(obsolete) Flesh; skin.
The flank or loin.
Empty; unoccupied; clear.
Destitute; lacking; wanting.
Faint from lack of food; hungry.
Thin; faint.
Having no load or burden; free; without a rider.
Lacking sense or seriousness; trifling; frivolous.
In intransitive terms the difference between peer and leer
is that peer is to look with difficulty, or as if searching for something while leer is to look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent.As an adjective leer is
empty; unoccupied; clear.peer
English
(wikipedia peer)Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads
- as if through a dungeon grate he peered
- He walked slowly past the gate and peered through a narrow gap in the cedar hedge. The girl was moving along a sanded walk, toward a gray, unpainted house, with a steep roof, broken by dormer windows.
- He would peek into the curtained windows, or, climbing upon the roof, peer down the black depths of the chimney in vain endeavor to solve the unknown wonders that lay within those strong walls.
- So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
- See how his gorget peers above his gown!
Etymology 2
From Anglo-Norman peir , (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- In song he never had his peer .
- Shall they draw off to their privileged quarters, and consort only with their peers ?
- a peer of the realm
- a noble peer of mickle trust and power
- He all his peers in beauty did surpass.
Verb
(en verb)- (Heylin)
Derived terms
* peer-to-peerEtymology 3
Anagrams
* ----leer
English
Etymology 1
Exact development uncertain, but apparently from *. See below.Verb
(en verb)- To gild a face with smiles; and leer a man to ruin.
Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
From (etyl) ler, . More at (l), (l).Alternative forms
* (l), (l), (l)Noun
(en noun)- (Holinshed)
- a Rosalind of a better leer than you
Anagrams
* *Etymology 3
From (etyl) lere, from (etyl) . More at (l).Alternative forms
* (l)Adjective
(en adjective)- a leer stomach
- (Gifford)
- a leer horse
- (Ben Jonson)
- leer words