The skin of an animal, or some part of such skin, with the hair removed, and tanned, tawed, or otherwise dressed for use; also, dressed hides, collectively. [1913 Webster]

The skin. [1913 Webster]
" Leather is much used adjectively in the sense of made of, relating to, or like, leather." [1913 Webster]

Leather board, an imitation of sole leather, made of leather scraps, rags, paper, etc. -- Leather carp (Zoöl.) , a variety of carp in which the scales are all, or nearly all, absent. See Illust. under Carp. -- Leather jacket. (Zoöl.) (a) A California carangoid fish (Oligoplites saurus). (b) A trigger fish (Balistes Carolinensis). -- Leather flower (Bot.), a climbing plant (Clematis Viorna) of the Middle and Southern States having thick, leathery sepals of a purplish color. -- Leather leaf (Bot.), a low shrub (Cassandra calyculata), growing in Northern swamps, and having evergreen, coriaceous, scurfy leaves. -- Leather plant (Bot.), one or more New Zealand plants of the composite genus Celmisia, which have white or buff tomentose leaves. -- Leather turtle. (Zoöl.) See Leatherback. -- Vegetable leather. (a) An imitation of leather made of cotton waste. (b) Linen cloth coated with India rubber. Ure.

leather, v. t.

To beat, as with a thong of leather. G. Eliot. [1913 Webster]

leather, a.

Of, pertaining to or made of leather; consisting of leather; as, a black leather jacket. [PJC]

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

leather, n. & v.
--n.
1 a material made from the skin of an animal by tanning or a similar process. b (attrib.) made of leather.
2 a piece of leather for polishing with.
3 the leather part or parts of something.
4 sl. a cricket-ball or football.
5 (in pl.) leather clothes, esp. leggings, breeches, or clothes for wearing on a motor cycle.
6 a thong (stirrup-leather).
--v.tr.
1 cover with leather.
2 polish or wipe with a leather.
3 beat, thrash (orig. with a leather thong).

Idiom

leather-jacket
1 Brit. a crane-fly grub with a tough skin.
2 any of various tough-skinned marine fish of the family Monacanthidae. leather-neck Naut. sl. a soldier or (esp. US) a marine (with reference to the leather stock formerly worn by them).

Etymology

OE lether f. Gmc

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THESAURUS

leather
Leatherette, Leatheroid, Morocco, buff, cartilage, chamois, coat, cordovan, cuticle, dermis, dress down, fell, flax, fleece, flesh, fur, furring, give a dressing-down, gristle, hide, imitation fur, imitation leather, integument, jacket, kid, larrup, lather, leather paper, leathern, leathery, lick, mocha, outer layer, outer skin, paddle, patent leather, pelt, peltry, rawhide, rind, sheath, sheepskin, skin, skins, suede, tan, tegument, trim, vair, wallop, welt, whale

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ROGET THESAURUS

leather

Punishment
VB punish, chastise, chasten, castigate, correct, inflict punishment, administer correction, deal retributive justice, cowhide, lambaste, visit upon, pay, pay out, serve out, do for, make short work of, give a lesson to, serve one right, make an example of, have a rod in pickle for, give it one, strike, deal a blow to, administer the lash, smite, slap, slap the face, smack, cuff, box the ears, spank, thwack, thump, beat, lay on, swinge, buffet, thresh, thrash, pummel, drub, leather, trounce, sandbag, baste, belabor, lace, lace one's jacket, dress, dress down, give a dressing, trim, warm, wipe, tund, cob, bang, strap, comb, lash, lick, larrup, wallop, whop, flog, scourge, whip, birch, cane, give the stick, switch, flagellate, horsewhip, bastinado, towel, rub down with an oaken towel, rib roast, dust one's jacket, fustigate, pitch into, lay about one, beat black and blue, beat to a mummy, beat to a jelly, give a black eye, tar and feather, pelt, stone, lapidate, masthead, keelhaul, execute, bring to the block, bring to the gallows, behead, decapitate, guillotine, decollate, hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter, shoot, decimate, burn, break on the wheel, crucify, empale, impale, flay, lynch, electrocute, gas, send to the gas chamber, torture, put on, put to the rack, picket, banish, exile, transport, expel, ostracize, rusticate, drum out, dismiss, disbar, disbench, strike off the roll, unfrock, post, suffer, suffer for, suffer punishment, be flogged, be executed, suffer the ultimate penalty, be hanged, come to the gallows, mount the gallows, swing, twist in the wind, dance upon nothing, die in one's shoes, be rightly served, be electrocuted, fry, ride the lightning, face the firing squad.

Covering
N covering, cover, baldachin, baldachino, baldaquin, canopy, tilt, awning, tent, marquee, tente d'abri, umbrella, parasol, sunshade, veil (shade), shield, roof, ceiling, thatch, tile, pantile, pentile, tiling, slates, slating, leads, barrack, plafond, planchment, tiling, shed, top, lid, covercle, door, operculum, bulkhead, bandage, plaster, lint, wrapping, dossil, finger stall, coverlet, counterpane, sheet, quilt, tarpaulin, blanket, rug, drugget, housing, antimacassar, eiderdown, numdah, pillowcase, pillowslip, linoleum, saddle cloth, blanket cloth, tidy, tilpah, apishamore, integument, tegument, skin, pellicle, fleece, fell, fur, leather, shagreen, hide, pelt, peltry, cordwain, derm, robe, buffalo robe, cuticle, scarfskin, epidermis, clothing, mask, peel, crust, bark, rind, cortex, husk, shell, coat, eggshell, glume, capsule, sheath, sheathing, pod, cod, casing, case, theca, elytron, elytrum, involucrum, wrapping, wrapper, envelope, vesicle, corn husk, corn shuck, dermatology, conchology, testaceology, inunction, incrustation, superimposition, superposition, obduction, scale, veneer, facing, overlay, plate, silver plate, gold plate, copper plate, engobe, ormolu, Sheffield plate, pavement, coating, paint, varnish, plating, barrel plating, anointing, enamel, epitaxial deposition, vapor deposition, ground, whitewash, plaster, spackel, stucco, compo, cerement, ointment, covering, superimposed, overlaid, plated, cutaneous, dermal, cortical, cuticular, tegumentary, skinny, scaly, squamous, covered, imbricated, loricated, armor plated, ironclad, under cover, cowled, cucullate, dermatoid, encuirassed, hooded, squamiferous, tectiform, vaginate.

Tenacity
N tenacity, toughness, strength, (cohesion), grip, grasp, stickiness, (cohesion), sequacity, stubbornness (obstinacy), glue, cement, glutinousness, sequaciousness, viscidity, (semiliquidity), leather, white leather, whitleather, gristle, cartilage, unbreakability, tensile strength, tenacious, tough, strong, resisting, sequacious, stringy, gristly cartilaginous, leathery, coriaceous, tough as whitleather, stubborn, unbreakable, indivisible, atomic.

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