leave

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To go away from a place or person.

   What time does your train leave?

2. 2
   verb

   To let something stay where it is or how it is.

   Just leave it as it is.

3. 3
   verb

   To forget to take something with you.

   I left my umbrella on the bus.

4. 4
   noun

   A period of time you are allowed to be away from work.

   She took ten days' leave to visit her family.

5. 5
   noun

   Official permission to do something.

   I was granted leave to speak.

Multiword verbs with leave

• leave behind Phrasal verb A1

  to depart without taking something or someone along

• leave off Phrasal verb A1

  to omit something rather than include it

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Leave is an Old English word related to life and live; life is also related to German Leib “body.”

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”), 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 b…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary