leaves

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of leaf.

   Maple leaves carpeted the trail after the storm.

   The gardener swept the fallen leaves from the path.

   Note

   The f-to-v plural, the same shift that turns wolf into wolves and knife into knives. It serves every sense of leaf, not just foliage. The leaves of a book are its sheets, each carrying two pages, and a leaf spring is built from stacked steel leaves. The spelling is shared with the verb "she leaves", so only context separates a falling leaf from a departing person.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of leave.

   He always leaves a generous tip at the diner.

   The train leaves the station right on schedule.

   Note

   The present-tense form that agrees with he, she, it or a singular noun: the train leaves, she leaves. Most uses take an object, and the object decides the meaning. Leaves the station is departure, leaves a tip is setting something down, and leaves him alone is letting someone be. It can also link to an adjective, as in the news leaves her speechless, where it means "results in."

3. 3
   noun

   Plural of leave in the sense of permission; rare, since this sense is normally uncountable.

   Note

   A dated plural, because leave meaning "permission" now usually stays uncountable: one asks leave to speak, rarely for a leave. Counting it as leaves treats each grant of consent as a separate act or document, which suits historical writing about charters, licenses and magistrates. In present-day prose, permissions is the safer plural. Leaves on its own will be read as time off work.

4. 4
   noun

   Plural of leave, in the sense of authorized periods of absence from work or duty.

   The company tracks all parental and medical leaves in a single system.

   Two officers returned from their leaves just as the operation began.

   Note

   The plural administrators need. Leave as time away is usually uncountable (she is on leave), but once each absence becomes a record, it can be counted. Leaves almost always comes with a modifier naming the kind, such as medical or parental, or a possessive tying it to people, as in their leaves. Without one, a reader may pause over the foliage plural.

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