Leery

//ˈlɪəɹi// adj, slang

adj, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Cautious, suspicious, wary, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns.

    "Since he was bitten by a dog when he was young, he has always been leery of animals."

  2. 2
    Sly; artful; knowing. UK, obsolete, slang
  3. 3
    Leering; lecherous or unpleasant.

    "And there was a particularly brutal villain with leery eyes, ugly mouth, with one tooth gone, and an iron jaw like a hull-dog's."

Adjective
  1. 1
    openly distrustful and unwilling to confide wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
mistrustfulwaryagnosticcageycarefulcautious

Example

More examples

"Be leery of those who claim someone is non compos mentis and let rationale be your judge."

Etymology

First attested in 1718, “untrustful, suspicious”, either from leer (“sideward look”) + -y, lear (“learning, knowledge”) + -y. More at leer, lear.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.