| Leather | n. [ OE. lether, AS. leðer; akin to D. leder, leêr, G. leder, OHG. ledar, Icel. leðr, Sw. läder, Dan. læder. ] 1. 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 ] 2. The skin. [ Ironical or Sportive ] [ 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 (Zool.) , a variety of carp in which the scales are all, or nearly all, absent. See Illust. under Carp. -- Leather jacket. (Zool.) (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. (Zool.) See Leatherback. -- Vegetable leather. (a) An imitation of leather made of cotton waste. (b) Linen cloth coated with India rubber. Ure. [ 1913 Webster ]
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| Leatherback | n. (Zool.) A large sea turtle (Sphargis coriacea), having no bony shell on its back. It is common in the warm and temperate parts of the Atlantic, and sometimes weighs over a thousand pounds; -- called also leather turtle, leathery turtle, leather-backed tortoise, etc. [ 1913 Webster ] |