How to Use leery in a Sentence

leery

adjective
  • They were leery of their neighbors.
  • When the two talked, Doumbia was leery of just about anybody.
    — Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Apr. 2025
  • Yet even critics of the deal were leery of the fallout from killing it.
    — Simon Shuster/london, Time, 13 Aug. 2019
  • Actors who’ve achieved renown can grow leery of taking on a new play.
    — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2023
  • Afghans now are leery of what the Taliban are calling a new era.
    — NBC News, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Or will the Yankees be leery once again of market prices for top starters?
    — James Wagner, New York Times, 20 Oct. 2019
  • Still leery about hitting the bars while the pandemic lingers?
    — Randy Tucker, The Enquirer, 8 July 2021
  • But there’s one thing to be leery of, and it’s called desperation.
    — Dan Rodricks, Baltimore Sun, 19 Apr. 2024
  • But a portion of the fan base remains leery of the new ownership.
    — Chris Pomorski, Curbed, 17 Oct. 2022
  • Pua Case is leery to accept any sort of recognition for her work.
    — USA Today, 19 Mar. 2023
  • And the president is leery of another staff shake-up at this time.
    — Kristen Welker, NBC News, 9 Feb. 2018
  • Many of the designers who once embraced them are leery of discussing them.
    — New York Times, 4 July 2022
  • But the leaf dealers were leery of LeBow and his nicotine-free seedlings.
    — Joshua Davis, WIRED, 1 Feb. 2003
  • Also, be leery if a worker shows up on your doorstep to announce that your home is unsafe.
    — Lea Napoliello, Houston Chronicle, 1 Feb. 2020
  • Not to mention, even if some may have reopened, many parents are leery of dropping their kids off.
    — Johnny C. Taylor Jr., USA TODAY, 9 Sep. 2020
  • But, league sources said, both were leery of the possibilities.
    — Jason Lloyd, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
  • But everybody was a little leery of coming in and kicking the door down like that.
    — Shania Twain Built Her Own Country, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The turbo people are leery of letting Ongais run free on the bike.
    — Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 10 June 2020
  • Pools are also a hazard for dogs, Thomas said, though less so for cats, who are leery of water.
    — Marni Jameson, orlandosentinel.com, 5 Mar. 2021
  • But some teams were leery that the teenager might not develop at the plate, and early on, that looked to be the case.
    — Joan Niesen, SI.com, 25 Aug. 2017
  • CFOs, for the most part, have been leery of Bitcoin on the balance sheet.
    — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 19 Jan. 2022
  • Like many leading trainers, Cox is leery of asking too much too soon of his top 3-year-olds.
    — Tim Sullivan, The Courier-Journal, 6 May 2021
  • Investors have been leery of backing the site, but its live shows now attract hundreds of thousands of users.
    — Kirsten Korosec, Fortune, 27 Dec. 2017
  • Don’t train much in your fastest racing shoes, and be a bit leery of the super shoes, at of least doing many of your miles in them.
    — Jonathan Beverly, Outside Online, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Kasowitz, meanwhile, is said to be leery of bringing in a lawyer who might want to be a co-counsel or take over the case.
    — Michael Kranish, Washington Post, 6 June 2017
  • From the start, subjects were leery of appearing in the magazine.
    — Matt Giles, Longreads, 29 Sep. 2017
  • And the founders were full-time business-school students, leery of borrowing money to build out shops.
    — Kate King, wsj.com, 13 May 2023
  • Lions and leopards, like any house cat, are leery of water, and tend to avoid wet grasses, which soften their claws.
    — Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 22 Mar. 2022
  • Rising oil prices and leery markets could spook the president into pulling back from the conflict.
    — Joel Mathis, TheWeek, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Trump, for reasons that do him no credit, wants no further part of Pence and is leery of anyone too much like him.
    — The Editors, National Review, 3 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'leery.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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