Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Suspicious or distrustful; wary: was leery of aggressive salespeople.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Knowing; wide-awake; sly: as, the leery man.
- Empty, in any sense: as, a leery cart; to be leery and tired.
Wiktionary
- adj. Cautious, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. openly distrustful and unwilling to confide
Etymologies
- 1718, "untrustful, suspicious", either from leer + -y, or from dialectal lere, lear (“learning, knowledge”) + -y. More at leer, lear. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Yet Republicans remain leery of the growing Democratic push for a second economic stimulus program to be considered in September, worried that Democrats are trying to corner them with a politically appealing proposal right before the elections.”
Congress Moves Toward Approving Housing Bill - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“Many businesses remain leery of putting their applications and data on servers they don’t control, for example.”
Google Goes After Another Microsoft Cash Cow - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
“But every deliver guy was kind of leery about thiss fellow.”
“Donald Birger, president of InstaCredit Automart, which sold more than 3,000 vehicles in 2008 through its two dealerships in Collinsville, Ill., and O'Fallon, Mo., says he initially was "leery" of the remote disabling systems, in part because he thought customers might object.”
The Wall Street Journal: Late on a Car Loan? Meet the Disabler
“But I ` m really kind of leery about making -- him making bond.”
“RANDY STRICKER, THOMSON RESIDENT: I'm kind of leery a little bit, I guess.”
“U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said he was "leery" about blaming Ethiopia for what is primarily an internal Somali problem.”
“In the same article linked to above, Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky said that she's "leery" about incineration and approves of composting.”
Peace, order and good government, eh?: October 2003 Archives
“LEWIS: Just that, you know, everybody in the school is taking the necessary steps to make sure all the kids are protected And you know, she probably won't be allowed to play outside today and she still was kind of leery about going to school.”
“I figure that Jake Offutt is kind of leery about the way folks are talking about you.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘leery’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 more...
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Vocabulary 2
peril, precinct, embolden, trepidation, glean, quorum, laud, leap, leery, fumble, repertory, serendipity and 3 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1906 more...
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edbert's list
Random first list words
cathartic, wordy, fortuitous, loquacious, indignation, troubador, inundate, undulate, douchebag, douchebaggery, livid, leery and 4 more...
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pagecrusher's Words
fugu, ilk, rigamarole, superfluous, dearth, sacrosanct, moniker, bifurcate, villainous, onus, brazen, odin and 268 more...
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yoshiyahu's Words
meme, disingenuous, antebellum, hypnagogic, philtrum, transference, prototypical, janissary, tuareg, shoal, caltrop, bannister and 89 more...
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Autantonyms
Words with mutually exclusive double meanings. Also, here are some:
QUASI-AUTANTONYMS: slow up/slow down; bar/debar; bone/debone; burn up/burn down; fat chance/slim chance; fill in/fil...clip, cleave, sanction, handicap, fast, jibe, secrete, aloha, bimonthly, bolt, cheerio, commencement and 139 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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whatever1013's Words
chocolate, sesquipedalophobia, discombobulated, callipygian, retronym, squirm, cobalt blue, plethora, onomatopoeia, blowhard, strumpet, shush and 173 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for leery.

Prolagus Song quotation on verbose. Aug 20, 2009
oroboros Contronymic in the sense: aggressive (especially sexually) vs. cautious. Jan 27, 2007