Forms: 3–7 (9) lere, 5 ler, 6 leare, 6–7 leere, 7 leir, 7, 9 dial. lear, 9 dial. lair, 4– leer. [OE. *lǽre (implied in lǽrnes emptiness) = OS., OHG. lâri (MHG. lǣre, mod.G. leer, MDu. laer, Du. laar):—WGer. *lâri, of uncertain origin; according to some repr. an OTeut. *lǣzjo-, cogn. w. Goth. lasiws weak.]
† 1. Empty. Also, clear of. Of a burden: Useless. Obs.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1527. [He] haveth attom his riȝte spuse, Wowes weste [an] lere huse.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1800. Þo was bruteine þis lond of romeins al mest lere.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 283. Ȝif þey fyndeþ it [Fortune’s horn] empty [v.r. leer], þanne þey makeþ sorwe. Ibid., III. 311. How longe schal a fool bere lere fardelles? Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxxxv. (1495), 691. The pyth wythin is wasted and therfore the hole is voyde and lere.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 50. Take þin cofyns, & put in þe ovynne lere.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxi. 252 (Harl. MS.). ‘Do gete me,’ quod she, ‘a ler tonne, withe oute onye delaye.’
1519. Horman, Vulg., 158 b. Let all your leere pottis [L. vasa inania] stande the mouthe downwarde.
1567. Turberv., Ovid’s Ep., 16 b. Some lustfull lasse will not permit Achylles coutch be leare.
[1864. Sir J. K. James, Tasso, XIX. xxx. Carnage had choked the town, no spot was leer.]
b. Proposed as a Pathological term.
1893. S. Gee, Auscult. & Percuss., iii. (ed. 4), 58. Skoda … distinguishes percussion sounds according as they are full or leer. Ibid., note, Skoda’s word ‘leer’ is translated by Markham ‘empty.’ I formerly suggested ‘scanty.’ But indeed the word ‘leer’ needs no translation, for it is English as well as German, and bears the same meaning in both tongues.
2. Having no burden or load; said also of a horse without a rider. Obs. exc. dial.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 413. Þe foot man lere [printed lereþ] synge to fore þe þeef.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 8. Went he leere (quoth Socrates) or els charged with the charge of any burden?
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., XXXV. lxiv. The horse runs leere away without the man.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XVII. xi. 94. Leading also after them in hand one lere horse.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., i. (1623), B iv. Bees … that are loaded seeme greater and longer then those that are leere.
1654. ‘Palæmon,’ Friendship, 32. An Asse,… overburthen’d with his Masters Carriage desired a Horse … led leer by him, to ease him by bearing a Part.
1688. Wood, Life, 7 Nov. 60 horsmen went thro’ Oxford,—with leir and sumpter horses.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Leer, empty. Wilts. A leer waggon, an empty waggon.
1884. Tip Cat, xv. 199. They were up on the top of a load with old Ricketts, on their way to the rick-yard, promising to come back in what they call in those parts the ‘leer’ waggon.
1891. Athenæum, 22 Aug., 255. In the country between Plymouth and Exeter between forty and fifty years ago any ‘unladen’ cart was familiarly spoken of as a lair or a lairy-cart.
3. dial. a. Of the stomach: Empty of food. b. Of persons and animals: Having an empty stomach; hungry, faint for want of food.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., I. ii. 83. Then what’s the friar to the starving peasant? Just what the abbot is to the greedy noble—A scarecrow to lear wolves.
1853. Akerman, Wilts. Tales, 97. His bill was zharp, his stomach lear, Zo up a snapped the caddlin pair.
1862. Hughes, in Macm. Mag., V. 243/2. ’Em be aggravatin’ birds, plaguey cunnin’ let ’em be never zo lear.
1870. Lady Verney, Lettice Lisle, 308. Do ye tell Madam to send me a sup o’ broth, or summat, I feel so leer.
1878. Jefferies, Gamekeeper at H., 15. I’m rather lear at supper.
Proverb. 1860. Reade, Cloister & H., I. 312. Better a lean purse than a lere stomach.
