Definition of "leather"

leather

/ˈlɛðə/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural leathers
1. A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing.
2. A piece of the above used for polishing.
3. (colloquial) A cricket ball or football.
  Quotations
  The goalee made a frantic grab as the leather spun clean past him, but he was just a second too late, and Joe had scored for Redcliff.
  1918, M. M. Guy, Joe Doughty, page 157
4. (plural: leathers) clothing made from the skin of animals, often worn by motorcycle riders.
5. (baseball) A good defensive play
6. (boxing) A punch.
7. (dated, humorous) The skin.
8. Clipping of fruit leather.
adjective
not comparable
1. Made of leather.
  Quotations
  Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
2. Referring to one who wears leather clothing (motorcycle jacket, chaps over 501 jeans, boots), especially as a sign of sadomasochistic homosexuality.
verb
third-person singular simple present leathers, present participle leathering, simple past and past participle leathered
1. (transitive) To cover with leather.
  Quotations
  He rose and leathered his Colt as his father came to stand beside him.
  2015, Rain Trueax, Lands of Fire
2. (transitive, intransitive) To form a leathery surface (on).
  Quotations
  By the appearance of his deep suntan, which had leathered his skin, and the calluses that covered his hands, Sheriff Anderson figured the man to be one of the area ranchers.
  2003, Bonita Wagner, Satan's Choice, page 66
  Some leather and droop like bat wings, others, as the poet Brenda Hillman writes, are 'hung in hashtags'.
  2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 83
3. (transitive) To strike forcefully.
4. (transitive) To spank or beat with a leather belt or strap.
  Quotations
  My father was very angry with me— -he took and leathered ( beat) me, because I ran away from my school ; for I did run away from my school ; he took and tied me up on a Sunday morning, leathered me a Friday night, and Saturday night : I was stripped naked when he leathered me on Friday night, and Saturday; my father told me to strip myself, and he leathered me, it was with a whip; but I do not know where he got the whip; he tied me with my arms extended so -- (spreading out her arms to their extremity, as if they were to be nailed upon a cross) -- My legs were tied too -- I was at the bottom of the dresser.
  1806, Andrew Kippis, The New Annual Register
  My father was furious with me and reached for the strap. He brutally leathered me with it before sending me to bed for the night.
  2005, H. Salisbury, Betrayed, page 4
  Anyway, bums were always on view in our family, getting leathered with a heavy belt.
  2011, Agnes Owens, Agnes Owens: The Complete Novellas