Obs. Forms: 1 hléor, hlíor, 2–4 leor, 3–5 ler, lire, 3–6 lere, 4 lure, lewre, 4–6 lyre, 5 lyr, leyre, 5–6 lyer(e, 6–7 leer(e. [OE. hléor, hlíor neut. = OS. hleor, hlear, hlier (MDu. liere, MLG. ler), ON. hlýr (only pl.).
Some scholars have regarded the word as cogn. w. Gr. πλευρόν side; but the z-umlaut in the ON. form indicates an OTeut. type *hleuzom:—pre-Teut. *kleusóm; E. Zupitza suggests that this is the neuter of an adj. with the sense ‘adjacent to the ear,’ f. *klensó- ear (root -kleu- to hear: see LISTEN).]
1. The cheek.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 86. Gif hwylcum wearʓbræde weaxe on þam nosum oððe on þam hleore.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 157/8. Malae, hleor.
c. 1205. Lay., 30266. Urnen þa teres uppen þes kinges leores.
a. 1300. Floriz & Bl., 501. Þe tieres glide of hire lere.
c. 1300. Havelok, 2918. The heu is swilk in hire ler, So the rose in roser.
13[?]. Metr. Hom. (Vernon MS.), in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LVII. 273. As he eode wiþ leores weete.
c. 1330. Spec. Gy Warw., 842. Of þin eiȝen þe hote teres Þat goþ adoun bi þine leres.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xiv. (Tollem. MS.). ‘Mala’ is þe lower, and in þe face ben twey lewres þat schetteþ in ayþer side of þe nose.
c. 1410. Sir Cleges, 153. Hys teris … That ran dovn be his lyre.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, IX. xxii. 371. This lytel brachet … lyched his learys and his erys.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 33. With tears his lyers ful he blubbred.
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 106/1. The tears trilling downe his leeres.
2. The face, countenance; hence, look or appearance (of the face and skin), ‘hue,’ complexion. Often in alliterative phrases, as lovely or lovesome of leer, lily leer.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 438. Frons, hleor.
a. 1000. Guthlac, 305. Þonne he to eorðan on þam anade hleor onhylde.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 316. Þi leor is, meiden, lufsum, & ti muð murie.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., 52. Hire lure lumes liht, Ase a launterne a nyht.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 227. Of lere ne of lykame lik him nas none.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 2. A wyf … That lene was of lere and of liche bothe.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 2510. The mayden with lely lire.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxxi. 145. Youre rud that was so red, youre lyre the lylly lyke.
c. 1529. Skelton, E. Rummyng, 12. Her lothely lere Is nothynge clere. Ibid., P. Sparowe, 1031. The whytnesse of her lere.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., IV. ii. 119. Fie trecherous hue, that will betray with blushing The close enacts and counsels of the hart: Heer’s a young Lad fram’d of another leere, Looke how the blacke slaue smiles vpon the father.
1806. Jamieson, Sir Oluf, in Whitelaw, Sc. Ballads (1875), 466/1. Whareto is your lire sae blae and wan?
3. ? Temper, disposition.
(The identity of the word in this example is very doubtful.)
a. 1575. Wyfe Lapped in Morrelles Skin, 1109, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 226. Thus endeth the iest of Morels skin, Where the curst wife was lapped in; Because she was of a shrewde leere, Thus was she serued in this maner.
