(~s, leaving, left)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
If you ~ a place or person, you go away from that place or person.
He would not be allowed to ~ the country...
I simply couldn’t bear to ~ my little girl...
My flight ~s in less than an hour...
The last of the older children had left for school.
VERB: V n, V n, V, V for n
2.
If you ~ an institution, group, or job, you permanently stop attending that institution, being a member of that group, or doing that job.
He left school with no qualifications...
I am leaving to concentrate on writing fiction.
...a leaving present.
VERB: V n, V, V-ing
3.
If you ~ your husband, wife, or some other person with whom you have had a close relationship, you stop living with them or you finish the relationship.
He’ll never ~ you. You need have no worry...
I would be insanely jealous if Bill left me for another woman.
VERB: V n, V n for n, also V
4.
If you ~ something or someone in a particular place, you let them remain there when you go away. If you ~ something or someone with a person, you let them remain with that person so they are safe while you are away.
From the moment that Philippe had left her in the bedroom at the hotel, she had heard nothing of him...
Leave your key with a neighbour in case you lock yourself out one day.
VERB: V n prep/adv, V n with n
5.
If you ~ a message or an answer, you write it, record it, or give it to someone so that it can be found or passed on.
You can ~ a message on our answering machine...
Decide whether the ball is in square A, B, C, or D, then call and ~ your answer...
I left my phone number with several people.
VERB: V n prep/adv, V n, V n with n
6.
If you ~ someone doing something, they are doing that thing when you go away from them.
Salter drove off, leaving Callendar surveying the scene.
VERB: V n -ing
7.
If you ~ someone to do something, you go away from them so that they do it on their own. If you ~ someone to himself or herself, you go away from them and allow them to be alone.
I’d better ~ you to get on with it, then...
Diana took the hint and left them to it...
One of the advantages of a department store is that you are left to yourself to try things on...
VERB: V n to-inf, V n to it , be V-ed to pron-refl
8.
To ~ an amount of something means to keep it available after the rest has been used or taken away.
He always left a little food for the next day...
Double rooms at any of the following hotels should ~ you some change from ?150.
VERB: V n for n, V n n
9.
If you take one number away from another, you can say that it ~s the number that remains. For example, five take away two ~s three.
= equal
VERB
10.
To ~ someone with something, especially when that thing is unpleasant or difficult to deal with, means to make them have it or make them responsible for it.
...a crash which left him with a broken collar-bone...
VERB: V n with n
11.
If an event ~s people or things in a particular state, they are in that state when the event has finished.
...violent disturbances which have left at least ten people dead...
The documentary left me in a state of shock...
VERB: V n adj, V n prep/adv
12.
If you ~ food or drink, you do not eat or drink it, often because you do not like it.
If you don’t like the cocktail you ordered, just ~ it and try a different one.
VERB: V n
13.
If something ~s a mark, effect, or sign, it causes that mark, effect, or sign to remain as a result.
A muscle tear will ~ a scar after healing...
VERB: V n
14.
If you ~ something in a particular state, position, or condition, you let it remain in that state, position, or condition.
He left the album open on the table...
I’ve left the car lights on...
I left the engine running.
VERB: V n adj, V n adv/prep, V n -ing
15.
If you ~ a space or gap in something, you deliberately make that space or gap.
Leave a gap at the top and bottom so air can circulate.
VERB: V n
16.
If you ~ a job, decision, or choice to someone, you give them the responsibility for dealing with it or making it.
Affix the blue airmail label and ~ the rest to us...
The judge should not have left it to the jury to decide...
For the moment, I ~ you to take all decisions.
VERB: V n to n, V it to n to-inf, V n to-inf
17.
If you say that something such as an arrangement or an agreement ~s a lot to another thing or person, you are critical of it because it is not adequate and its success depends on the other thing or person.
The ceasefire ~s a lot to the goodwill of the forces involved...
VERB: V amount to n disapproval
18.
To ~ someone with a particular course of action or the opportunity to do something means to let it be available to them, while restricting them in other ways.
This left me only one possible course of action...
He was left with no option but to resign.
VERB: V n n, be V-ed with n
19.
If you ~ something until a particular time, you delay doing it or dealing with it until then.
Don’t ~ it all until the last minute.
VERB: V n until/to n
•
If you ~ something too late, you delay doing it so that when you eventually do it, it is useless or ineffective.
I hope I haven’t left it too late.
PHRASE: V inflects
20.
If you ~ a particular subject, you stop talking about it and start discussing something else.
I think we’d better ~ the subject of Nationalism...
He suggested we get together for a drink sometime. I said I’d like that, and we left it there.
VERB: V n, V n prep/adv
21.
If you ~ property or money to someone, you arrange for it to be given to them after you have died.
He died two and a half years later, leaving everything to his wife.
VERB: V n to n
22.
Leave is a period of time when you are not working at your job, because you are on holiday or vacation, or for some other reason. If you are on ~, you are not working at your job.
Why don’t you take a few days’ ~?
...maternity ~...
He is home on ~ from the Navy.
N-UNCOUNT: oft on N
23.
see also left
24.
If you ~ someone or something alone, or if you ~ them be, you do not pay them any attention or bother them.
Some people need to confront a traumatic past; others find it better to ~ it alone...
Why can’t you ~ him be?
PHRASE: V inflects
25.
If something continues from where it left off, it starts happening again at the point where it had previously stopped.
As soon as the police disappear the violence will take up from where it left off.
PHRASE: PHR after v, oft from PHR
26.
to ~ a lot to be desired: see desire
to ~ someone to their own devices: see device
to take ~ of your senses: see sense
take it or ~ it: see take