/flɪə/, /flɪɚ/, /fliɹ/
OriginPossibly from a Scandinavian source, compare Norwegian bokmål flire (“to giggle”), Jutish Danish flire.
- archaicTo make a wry face in contempt, or to grin in scorn
“LEONATO. Tush, tush, man! never fleer and jest at me:
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,
As, under privilege of age, to brag
What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old.”
“[I]n short, sneering and fleering at him in her cold barren way[.]”
- archaicTo grin with an air of civility; to leer.
“In the time of popery, before the gospel came amongst us, we went to burials with weeping and wailing, as though there were no God: but since the gospel came unto us, I have heard say, that in some pl”
- archaic, uncountableMockery; derision.
“[…] And flattery tipt with nauseous fleer,
And guilty shame, and servile fear,
Envy, and cruelty, and pride,
Will in your tainted heart preside.”
- One who flees.
“Which fear of the fleers away was no less ignominious, then if[…]they had turned their backs to the enemie.”
Formsfleers(present, singular, third-person) · fleering(participle, present) · fleered(participle, past) · fleered(past) · fleers(plural) · Fleers(plural)