Careful Words

leather (n.)

leather (v.)

leather (adv.)

Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt,

And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt.

Edward Young (1684-1765): To Mr. Pope. Epistle i. Line 277.

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;

The rest is all but leather or prunello.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 203.

Some have been beaten till they know

What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow;

Some kick'd until they can feel whether

A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 221.

As proper men as ever trod upon neat's leather.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 1.