Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to lech after

to lech after

9.9
To feel a strong sexual interest in someone and act in an unwanted way toward them
  • phrasal verb
  • Offensive
translation icon : desear sexualmente a
  • He was often criticized for leching after younger women at the bar.

Examples

  • Despite his friends' warnings, he continued leching after her, ignoring her discomfort.

  • You are beyond shame, leching after a barely pubescent child of the barnyard—and gentle Sylvia left to her own devices.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The outdated film portrayed the character as leching after teenage girls.

Synonyms

to lust after
vsto lech after
  • NSFW
5 6.8

To feel a strong sexual desire for someone

shows excessive or inappropriate sexual desire often unwanted

How Lustful

to obsess
304 5.5
to lech after
  • Offensive
9.9
to lust after
  • NSFW
5 6.8

Surface Forms

lech after infinitive
leching after present participle
leches after third person singular
leched after past
leched after past participle

Morphology

lech + after

The sense is partly derivable: 'lech' denotes a lecherous person and 'after' signals pursuit, so a learner who knows both words could infer a meaning like 'pursue or desire someone sexually.' However, the noun-to-verb conversion, pragmatic nuance of inappropriate/unwanted behaviour, and the lexical rarity of 'lech' make the exact sense and register less predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

The verb lech after may come from a simple picture: a lech, a person who wants someone, being always after them, following and staring in a sexual way. So, the phrase means 'to have a strong and often unwanted sexual desire for someone'.