leave

Less common meanings

9. 9
   give by willverbtransitive

   To transfer possession of something after death; to bequeath.

   Before she died, she decided to leave the farm to the neighbor who had worked it for thirty years.

   Her grandfather left her a small cottage by the sea in his will.

   UsageLeave something to someone, or leave someone something: left her a cottage.

   Similarbequeath, will

   Oppositeinherit

10. 10
    dieverbeuphemistictransitive

    To die and so be parted from someone, a gentle usage with the bereaved as the object, as in "she left us too soon."

    Grandfather left us in the spring.

    Nobody wants to leave their children too soon.

    Note

    A gentle way of speaking of a death from the mourners' side. It suits tributes, condolence letters and quiet conversation, where died would sound abrupt. Watch the frame, though. He left a wife and three children usually names the survivors, and that shades into letting something remain rather than naming the death itself.

11. 11
    permissionnouncountable or uncountable

    Permission, especially in legal contexts.

    By your leave, I will sit here.

    Since I have your good leave to go away, / I will make haste: but, till I come again, / No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay, / Nor rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.

    c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”

    UsageMostly in law (leave to appeal) and in set phrases: by your leave, without leave.

    Similarconsent, authorization

    Note

    The older, general sense of permission, now kept alive mainly by courtesy formulas and the courts. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Leave has an old general sense meaning permission, inherited from Old English. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    verbobsoleteintransitive

    To remain behind, or stay.

    Note

    An old intransitive meaning that sits close to the word's roots, since the Germanic verb behind it meant "to stay, remain". Malory still uses it in 1485 for a spearhead that remained in a wound. Modern readers meet it only in older texts, where a bare leave can mean the opposite of going. In your own writing use stay or remain, because today it would be read as going away. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Leave historically had an intransitive sense meaning remain or stay. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb's Germanic ancestry includes a verb meaning stay or remain. en.wiktionary.org
    • Malory's work containing this use was first published in 1485. d.lib.rochester.edu
    • The example in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII, chapter XI, describes a broken spearhead remaining in Launcelot's side. gutenberg.org
13. 13
    noundatedcountable or uncountable

    Farewell, or the act of departure.

    UsageLives in take your leave and take leave of someone; everyday speech says goodbye.

    Note

    It belongs to the permission word, not the verb of going, even though its meaning has drifted toward departure. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The farewell noun belongs etymologically to leave meaning permission, rather than to the departure verb. en.wiktionary.org
    • The permission noun developed a farewell or departure meaning. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    stop doingverbarchaictransitive

    To stop or desist from something, with a noun or gerund.

    Now leave Complaining, and begin your Tea.

    1716, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Basset-Table. An Eclogue.

    When he had leeft speakynge, he sayde vnto Simon: Cary vs into the depe, and lett slippe thy nette to make a draught.

    1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt (Tyndale Bible)

    Note

    A pattern of older English in which the activity itself is the object, usually a gerund: when he had left speaking, now leave complaining. Tyndale uses it in 1526, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu still does in 1716. Today the same idea needs a particle, as in leave off complaining, or a different verb, as in stop complaining. A bare leave followed by a gerund sounds like scripture or period pastiche. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Older English used transitive leave to mean stop or desist, with a noun or gerund as its object. en.wiktionary.org
    • Tyndale uses the construction represented by the modernized example 'when he had left speaking'. en.wikisource.org
    • Tyndale's New Testament containing this example was published in 1526. worms.de
    • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu uses 'now leave complaining' in The Basset-Table. pages.uoregon.edu
    • The Montagu example appeared in the 1716 publication of Court Poems. pages.uoregon.edu
15. 15
    snookernouncountable

    In games such as billiards, snooker or Scrabble, what remains after a player's turn (the balls' positions or the tiles on the rack), judged by its value for the next turn.

    The leave after the massé was hopeless.

    Professionals think in leaves, not single shots.

    Note

    Billiards players judge a shot by what it sets up as much as by what it scores. The leave is the table after the stroke. Because the next shooter may be the same player or an opponent, a careless leave can hand a rival the game. A New York Times match report from 1890 already grades one in the usual way: the leave was unfortunate. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • A New York Times billiards match report from 1890 uses and evaluates the noun 'leave'. Wiktionary identifies the report as 'Slosson’s Close Shave', dated February 27, 1890. en.wiktionary.org
    • The report contains the quoted wording 'the leave was unfortunate', followed by 'for Ives'. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    cricketnouncountable

    In cricket, the batsman's act of not attempting to play at the ball.

    His leaves outside off stump frustrated the bowlers all morning.

    Coaches drill young openers on the leave until it becomes second nature.

    Note

    A cricketer's word for deliberate restraint: the batsman watches the ball and chooses not to play at it. The noun is countable, so leaves are tallied like strokes, as in forty-five leaves in an innings of sixty-four, and a good one earns praise in its own right. In cricket, doing nothing is a skill with its own name. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The figures forty-five and sixty-four occur together in an illustrative example of cricket 'leaves'; the item does not identify them as statistics from an actual match. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    turn greenverbrareintransitive

    To produce foliage.

    Similarleaf, sprout

    Note

    A verb made from the noun leaf, unrelated to the verb of going even though the two share their present-tense forms. It is rare, and a reader is most likely to meet it in poetry. Fitzgerald's Rubáiyát asks where leaves the Rose of Yesterday, a line in which leafing and departing both hover. In plain prose, the context has to make the plant meaning unmistakable. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The foliage verb derives from the noun leaf. en.wiktionary.org
    • The foliage verb has a different etymology from leave meaning to depart. en.wiktionary.org
    • They share their present-tense forms, but the foliage verb has leaved as its past tense and past participle; the departure verb has left. en.wiktionary.org
    • FitzGerald's Rubáiyát contains the words where leaves the Rose of Yesterday. en.wikisource.org
18. 18
    verbobsolete

    To raise or levy.

    Note

    Borrowed from French lever, "to raise", and a cousin of levy, this verb had nothing to do with going. In The Faerie Queene of 1590, Spenser has a queen who leau'd an army, and that regular past tense gives it away: the everyday verb makes left, while this one made leaved. The sense is obsolete, so write levy or raise when speaking of troops. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Leave meaning to raise or levy comes from French lever and is etymologically separate from the departure verb. en.wiktionary.org
    • French lever means to raise and is also the source underlying levy. en.wiktionary.org
    • Spenser's The Faerie Queene was first published in 1590. en.wikisource.org
    • Spenser describes a queen raising an army, using leau'd. en.wikisource.org
    • The departure verb has left as its past tense. en.wiktionary.org
    • The raise-or-levy verb formed its past tense regularly as leaved, represented by leau'd in Spenser. en.wikisource.org