leave.
To have a consequence or remnant.
Meaning & usage
To have a consequence or remnant. 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.
To have a consequence or remnant. To cause, to result in.
The lightning left her dazzled for several minutes.
Infantile paralysis left him lame for the rest of his life.
To have a consequence or remnant. To put; to place; to deposit; to deliver, with a sense of withdrawing oneself.
Leave your hat in the hall.
We should leave the legal matters to lawyers.
To depart; to separate from. To let be or do without interference.
I left him to his reflections.
I leave my hearers to judge.
To depart; to separate from. To depart from; to end one's connection or affiliation with.
His bow and arrow never leaves him.
I left the country and I left my wife.
To depart; to separate from. 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.
To depart; to separate from. To die (the object denotes those affected by the death).
To depart; to separate from. To depart; to go away from a certain place or state.
I think you'd better leave.
To transfer something. To transfer possession of after death.
When my father died, he left me the house.
To transfer something. To intentionally place (something) to be received by another; to deliver (something) to a repository; to deposit.
I'll leave the car in the station so you can pick it up there.
To transfer something. To transfer responsibility or attention of (something) (to someone); to stop being concerned with.
Can't we just leave this to the experts?
To remain (behind); to stay.
To stop, desist from; to "leave off" (+ noun / gerund).
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leven, from Old English lǣfan (“to leave”), from Proto-West Germanic *laibijan, from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to let stay, leave”), causative of *lībaną (“to stay, remain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick; fat”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēva (“to leave”), dialectal Dutch loven (“to have left over, save, keep”), Old Saxon lēvian, Old High German leiban (“to leave”), Old Norse leifa (“to leave over”) (whence Icelandic leifa (“to leave food uneaten”), Swedish leva (“to leave”)), lifna (“to be left”) (whence Danish levne). More at lave, belive. The noun is attested since the 19th century, with earliest references to billiards.
The action of the batsman not attempting to play at the ball.
He made 45 leaves in his innings of 64.
The arrangement of balls in play that remains after a shot is made (which determines whether the next shooter — who may be either the same player, or an opponent — has good options, or only poor ones).
The tiles remaining on a player's rack after his or her turn.
I didn't score much, but LING was a good leave.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leven, from Old English lǣfan (“to leave”), from Proto-West Germanic *laibijan, from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to let stay, leave”), causative of *lībaną (“to stay, remain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick; fat”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēva (“to leave”), dialectal Dutch loven (“to have left over, save, keep”), Old Saxon lēvian, Old High German leiban (“to leave”), Old Norse leifa (“to leave over”) (whence Icelandic leifa (“to leave food uneaten”), Swedish leva (“to leave”)), lifna (“to be left”) (whence Danish levne). More at lave, belive. The noun is attested since the 19th century, with earliest references to billiards.
Permission to be absent; time away from one's work.
I've just been given three weeks' leave by my boss — I don't think I still have some leave owing to me.
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.
Farewell, departure.
I took my leave of the gentleman without a backward glance.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leve, from Old English lēaf (“permission, privilege”), from Proto-Germanic *laubō, *laubą (“permission, privilege, favour, worth”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love, hold dear”). Cognate with obsolete German Laube (“permission”), Swedish lov (“permission”), Icelandic leyfi (“permission”). Related to Dutch verlof, German Urlaub, Erlaubnis, Verlaub. See also love.
To give leave to; allow; permit; let; grant.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leven, from Old English līefan (“to allow, grant, concede; believe, trust, confide in”), from Proto-West Germanic *laubijan, from Proto-Germanic *laubijaną (“to allow, praise”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love, hold dear”). Cognate with German erlauben (“to allow”), German glauben (“to believe”), Icelandic leyfa (“to allow”).
To produce leaves or foliage.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English leven, from lef (“leaf”). More at leaf.
To raise; to levy.
Where this word comes from
From French lever. Compare levy. Compare also Middle English leve, a variant of levy that may have been monosyllabic.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.