hidden pixel

Leave Definition

leave

Contents

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English leven, from Old English lǣfan (“to leave”), from Proto-Germanic *laibijanan (“to let stay, leave”), causitive of Proto-Germanic *lībanan (“to stay, remain”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēva (“to leave”), Old High German leiban (“to leave”), Old Norse leifa (“leave over”), lifna (“to be left”) (> Danish levne). More at lave, belive.

Verb

leave (third-person singular simple present leaves, present participle leaving, simple past and past participle left)

  1. (transitive) To cause or allow (something) to remain as available; to refrain from taking (something) away; to stop short of consuming or otherwise depleting (something) entirely.
    I left my car at home and took a bus to work.
    The ants did not leave so much as a crumb of bread.
    There's not much food left, we'd better go to the shops.
  2. (transitive) To transfer possession of after death.
    When my father died, he left me the house.
  3. (transitive) To give (something) to someone; to deliver (something) to a repository; to deposit.
    I'll leave the car in the station so you can pick it up there.
  4. (transitive) To transfer responsibility or attention of (something) (to someone); to stop being concerned with.
    Can't we just leave this to the experts?
  5. (transitive) To depart from; to end one's connection or affiliation with.
    I left the country and I left my wife.
  6. (transitive) To end one's membership in (a group); to terminate one's affiliation with (an organization); to stop participating in (a project).
    I left the band.
  7. (intransitive) To depart; to go away from a certain place or state.
    I think you'd better leave.
  8. (intransitive, obsolete) To remain (behind); to stay.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VII:
      And by myssefortune Sir Bors smote Sir Launcelot thorow the shylde into the syde, and the speare brake and the hede leffte stylle in the syde.
  9. (transitive, archaic) To stop, desist from; to "leave off" (+ noun / gerund).
    • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke V:
      When he had leeft speakynge, he sayde vnto Simon: Cary vs into the depe, and lett slippe thy nette to make a draught.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from the verb leave
Translations
To cause to remain as available, not take away, refrain from depleting
To transfer possession after death
To give (something) to someone; to deliver (something) to a repository; to deposit
To transfer responsibility or attention
To depart from, end one's connection or affiliation with
To end one's membership in
To depart (intransitive)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
  • Afrikaans: laat*
  • Chinese:
  • Mandarin: 剩餘, 剩余 (shèngyú)
  • Czech: zbýt (cs)
  • Danish: tilbage (da), overlade (da)
  • Dutch: over zijn, overblijven, laten (nl)
  • French: laisser (fr)
  • German: belassen (de)
  • Japanese: 残す (nokosu) vt.
    残る (nokoru) vi.
  • Kurdish: به‌جێی بێڵه‌

Noun

leave (plural leaves)

  1. (cricket) the action of the batsman not attempting to play at the ball.

Etymology 2

From Middle English leve, from Old English lēaf (“permission, privilege”), from Proto-Germanic *laubō (“permission, privilege, favour, worth”), from Proto-Indo-European *leubh- (“to love”). Cognate with obsolete German Laube (“permission”), Swedish lov (“permission”), Icelandic leyfi (“permission”). Related to Dutch verlof, German Erlaubnis. See also love.

Noun

leave (uncountable)

  1. Permission to be absent; time away from one's work.
    I've been given three weeks' leave by my boss.
  2. (dated or law) Permission.
    Might I beg leave to accompany you?
    The applicant now seeks leave to appeal and, if leave be granted, to appeal against these sentences.
  3. (dated) Farewell, departure.
    I took my leave of the gentleman without a backward glance.
Derived terms
Terms derived from the noun leave
Translations
permission
absence from work
  • Polish: urlop m.
  • Russian: отпуск (ótpusk) m.; побывка (pobývka, military) f.
  • Spanish: permiso (es) m.
  • Swahili: toka (sw)
  • Swedish: ledighet (sv)
  • Welsh: seibiant, gwyliau
departure
  • Italian: partenza (it)
  • Spanish: despedida (es) f.
  • Swahili: toka (sw)
  • Swedish: avsked (sv)
  • Welsh: gadawiad

Etymology 3

Verb

leave (third-person singular simple present leaves, present participle leaving, simple past and past participle left)

  1. (intransitive, rare) To produce leaves or foliage.[1]
    • 1868, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, 2nd edition:
      Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say:
      Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?
Synonyms

References

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.

Statistics

 

The above information uses material from Wiktionary and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Mon Apr 23 12:38:20 2012.
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

More Definition Results for "Leave"
[Hide]▼
'Leave' Images
[Hide]▲