Definitions
openly distrustful and unwilling to confide
Word origin
First attested in 1718, “untrustful, suspicious”, either from leer (“sideward look”) + -y, lear (“learning, knowledge”) + -y. More at leer, lear.
Used in a sentence
“Since he was bitten by a dog when he was young, he has always been leery of animals.”
““[…]He was one of their top gun-fighters—always up to his ears in the thick of any fightin' that was goin' on. He never was leery of anything on two feet, I'll say that much for'm.””
“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.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Hard to convince”5 letters
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