Forms: 3–5 leccherie, 3–7 lecherie, (3–5 -ye), 4 lechury(e, -ure, -uri, -wry, lec(c)heri, ? lecȝery, licchery, -ie, litcheri, lychory, -ery, -eri, -ore, luchery, 4–5 lecchery(e, lechory, i(e, lichery, -ory, 4–6 licherie, 5 lecuri ?, 6 leicherie, luchrie, li-, lychorie, lichery, 6–7 letcherie, 7–8 -ery, leachery, 5– lechery. [a. OF. lecherie, licherie, f. lecheur LECHER sb.] Habitual indulgence of lust; lewdness of living. † Also, an instance of this.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 11. Þat is te lust of leccherie þat riuleð þer wiðinne.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3510. Oc horedom ðat ðu ne do, Ne wend no lecherie to.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10046 (Cott.). Þe chastite o þis leuidi Ouercumms al lust o lecheri [Gött. lichery]. Ibid. (c. 1340), 6476 (Trin.). Do no lecchery bi no wommon.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 79. Of þe herte comen yvel þouȝtis, in yvel wordis; mansleyingis, avoutrieris, leccheries.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 762. After Glotonye thanne comth leccherie.
a. 1420. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 3656. Leccherye … is hogges lif.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., I. (Arb.), 84. To waulter, with as litle shame, in open lecherie, as Swyne do here in the common myre.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 225. The Faulcons fiercenesse, Sparrowes letcherie.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. i. 106. Nothing but Letcherie? All incontinent Varlets.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, VI. 2649. And this I holde, that secret letcherie Is a lesse sinne than close hypocrisie.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 92. The Salacity of a Debauched Life, or lechery produced and confirmed by habit.
1888. F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., July, 40. A new motif for art has also been discovered in death, disease, and lechery, treated in its most prosaic, photographic, and vulgar side.
personified. c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 3914. Over-al regnith Lecchery, Whos might yit growith night and day.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxvi. 79. Lichery, that lathly corss, Berand lyk a bagit horss.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 24. And next to him rode lustfull Lechery Upon a bearded gote.
1640. Yorke, Union Hon., 17. You cherish three daughters, Pride, Covetousnesse and Lechery.
b. fig.
c. 1491. Chast. Goddes Chyld., x. 26. Of this pryde cometh a spirituel or ghostli lechery.
1606. Dekker, Sev. Sinnes, I. (Arb.), 17. The Vsurer liues by the lechery on mony, and is Bawd to his owne bags.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, Wks. 1875, IV. 77. [He] will violate the ecclesiastical secret rather than lose the leachery of his tattle.
1687. Settle, Refl. Dryden, 33. Lash him, and mortify his Letchery of writing Nonsense.
1692. E. Walker, trans. Epictetus’ Mor. (1737), xlvi. For Boasting is a most intemperate Vice … ’tis the Leach’ry of the Mind.
† c. transf. Luxurious or inordinate pleasure.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. i. Didst thou know What ravishing lechery it is to enter An ordinary, cap-a-pie trimmed like a gallant!
