Leatherette
noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A type of fabric, often plastic, made to imitate the appearance of leather. also, attributive, countable, uncountable
"Many attempts have been made to supply a material to take the place of leather on cheap books, but hitherto nothing has been quite successful. [...] Such a material has apparently appeared in the form of "Leatherette," which is a kind of felted paper, very tough, the same colour throughout, and which may be grained to imitate leather; indeed, the imitation is so close, both in appearance and in feel, that only a practised eye can perceive that it is not leather."
- 2 fabric made to look like leather wordnet
- 3 A person who dresses in leather or imitation leather. countable, slang
"The NYU tarts and the club slime, the art holes and the once-a-week bridge-and-tunnel leatherettes, the spikes and the usual dregs and walking garbage, Eel was giving them all the hiss."
Example
More examples"Many attempts have been made to supply a material to take the place of leather on cheap books, but hitherto nothing has been quite successful. [...] Such a material has apparently appeared in the form of "Leatherette," which is a kind of felted paper, very tough, the same colour throughout, and which may be grained to imitate leather; indeed, the imitation is so close, both in appearance and in feel, that only a practised eye can perceive that it is not leather."
Etymology
From leather + -ette (suffix forming nouns meaning an imitation or substitute of something); originally a trademark that has since been genericized.
More for "leatherette"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.