“leather” – English explanatory dictionary

noun a skin of certain animals used to make shoes, bags, etc. ○ a leather bag ○ My shoes have leather soles. □ synthetic leather a plastic material which looks like leather

to beat or thrash. Probably from allusion to the skin, which
is often called LEATHER. Some think the term is from the LEATHER belts
worn by soldiers, which are often used as weapons in street rows. Most
likely from there being “nothing like LEATHER” with which to administer
a thrashing.

(leth´er), n. [OE. lether, AS. leðer; akin to D. leder, leêr, G. leder, OHG. ledar, Icel. leðr, Sw. läder, Dan. laeder.]
1. The skin of an animal, or some part of such skin, tanned, tawed, or otherwise dressed for use; also dressed hides, collectively.
2. The skin. [Ironical or Sportive] Leather is much used adjectively in the sense of made of, relating to, or like, leather. Leather board, an imitation of sole leather, made of leather scraps, rags, paper, etc. — Leather carp (Zoöl.) , a variety of carp in which the scales are all, or nearly all, absent. See Illust. under Carp. — Leather jacket. (Zoöl.) (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. (Zoöl.) See Leatherback. — Vegetable leather. (a) An imitation of leather made of cotton waste. (b) Linen cloth coated with India rubber. Ure.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. Leathered p. pr. & vb. n. Leathering.] To beat, as with a thong of leather. [Obs. or Colloq.] G. Eliot.