arch. Forms: 2–5 lechur, 3 -or, 3–6 -our, 4 lichur, -o(u)re, licchour, lec(c)houre, lech-, lychure, 4–5 lichour, lecchour, 5 lecheour(e, lechowr(e, -ir, -urre, lichir, -or, lycher, lehchour, 5–6 lychour, (6 leachour, lecherd, 7 lechard), 6–8 leacher, letcher, 5– lecher. [a. OF. lecheor, -eur, -ur, liceour, lichieor, also lichard, agent-n. f. lechier to live in debauchery or gluttony, mod.F. lêcher to lick = Pr. lecar, lechar, It. leccare, ad. OHG. leccôn (G. lecken):—OTeut. *likkôjan to LICK.] A man immoderately given to sexual indulgence; a lewd or grossly unchaste man, a debauchee.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 53. Þus heo doð for to feiren heom seoluen and to draȝe lechurs to ham.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 216. Þe lechur iðe deofles kurt bifuleð himsulf fulliche, & alle his feolawes.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7208. Prustes, mid vnclene honden & mid lechors mod Al isoyled.
13[?]. K. Alis., 3916. Fy, he saide, apon the lechour: Thou schalt dye as a traytour!
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr. (1866), 11. The sexte commandement es ‘Thou sall be na lichoure.’
c. 1375. Cursor M., 31 (Laud). Of chastyte the lechour [Bedford MS. þe lichore] hath lyte.
c. 1385. Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 242. Sir olde lecchour, lat thy Iapes be.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xviii. 103. Summe ben founde … to be greet lecchouris, Summe to be avoutreris.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XVIII. ii. Launcelot now I wel vnderstande that thou arte a fals recreaunt knyghte and a comyn lecheoure, and louest and holdest other ladyes.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 174. He has bene lychour so lang quhill lost is his natur.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. v. 147. I will now take the Leacher: hee is at my house.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1634), 477. Of Concubines they [men] may have as many as they list, and women as many lechards.
1621. Quarles, Esther, vi. The time is come, faire Ester must Expose her beauty to the Lecher’s lust.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 148. Half-surpriz’d, and fearing to be seen, The Leacher gallop’d from his jealous Queen.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 502, ¶ 4. You see … old letchers, with mouths open, stare at the loose gesticulations on the stage with shameful earnestness.
1728. Ramsay, Monk & Miller’s Wife, 105. The haly letcher fled, And darn’d himsell behind a bed.
1763. Churchill, Gotham, III. (1764), 23. Like a Virgin to some letcher sold.
1831. Trelawney, Adv. Younger Son, II. 193. If she is poor, some old lechers, their dormant passions rekindled, beset her.
