† lepry Obs.
Forms: 5–7 lepry, -rie; 5 leperiȝ, 6 leprye, -raye, leaperie, 6–7 leprey, leaprie, -ry. (For the form lepre, which may possibly in some instances belong to this word, see leper1.)
[f. leper n.2 + -y.]
= leprosy.
| 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ii. xviii. (1554), God..smote him with leprie [ed. 1494 lepre]. a 1483 Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 43 If any of this courte be infected with leperiȝ or pestylence. 1545 Brinklow Lament. 24 b, No parson, ones hauing the leperye, shuld come amonge the congregacion of the whole. 1563 T. Hill Profit. Art Garden. (1593) 82 To heale a red leapry... Lay vpon the blisters and leaprie. 1587 Harrison England ii. xxiii. (1878) i. 350 This [spring] is good for scabs and leaperie. 1607 Topsell Hist. Four-f. Beasts 503 The dust of a mole being brent, mingled with the white of an Egge, and anointed vpon a sheepe, is an excellent and medicinable remedy against the Leprie which commeth oftentimes vpon them. 1621 Ainsworth Annot. Pentat. (1639) 66 These sundry sorts of Leprie in the body. 1660 tr. Paracelsus' Archidoxis i. iv. 42 The Leapry is a more grievous infirmity then the Cholick is. |
| fig. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 35 Where is worse lepry than property in religyon. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. li. iv, Thy hisop..shall clense the leaprie of my minde. 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 17 Their breath is contagious, their leprey spreading. 1654 Vilvain Theol. Treat. i. 29 A spiritual Lepry which hereditarily infects the whol Man. |
| Comb. 1608 Topsell Hist. Serpents (1658) 663 Rough, hard, mangy, or leprie-like nails. |