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American Dictionary of the English Language

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LEAVE


LEAVE, noun

1. Permission; allowance; license; liberty granted by which restraint or illegality is removed.

No friend has leave to bear away the dead.

David earnestly asked leave of me. 1 Samuel 20:1.

2. Farewell; adieu; ceremony of departure; a formal parting of friends; used chiefly in the phrase to take leave. Acts 18:1.

LEAVE, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive left. [Gr. Let in English has the sense both of permit and of hinder. The most prominent significations of leave, are to stop or forbear, and to withdraw.]

1. To withdraw or depart from; to quit for a longer or shorter time indefinitely, or for perpetuity. We left Cowes on our return to the United States, May 10, 1825. We leave home for a day or a year. The fever leaves the patient daily at a certain hour. The secretary has left the business of his office with his first clerk.

A man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife. Genesis 2:1.

2. To forsake; to desert; to abandon; to relinquish.

We have left all and followed thee. Mark 10:1.

3. To suffer to remain; not to take or remove.

Let no man leave of it till the morning. Exodus 16:1.

4. To have remaining at death; as, to leave a good name.

5. To commit or trust to, as a deposit; or to suffer to remain. I left the papers in the care of the consul.

6. To bequeath; to give by will. The deceased has left his lands to his sons, but he has left a legacy to his only daughter.

7. To permit without interposition. Of this, he leaves the reader to judge.

8. To cease to do; to desist from; to forbear.

Let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses and take thought for us. 1 Samuel 9:5.

9. To refer; to commit for decision.

To be left to one's self, to be deserted or forsaken; to be permitted to follow one's own opinions or desires.

To leave off, to desist from; to forbear; as, to leave off work at six o'clock.

1. To leave off, to cease wearing; as, to leave off a garment.

2. To forsake; as, to leave off an old acquaintance.

To leave out, to omit; as, to leave out a word or name in writing.

LEAVE, verb intransitive To cease; to desist.

He began at the eldest and left at the youngest. Genesis 44:12.

To leave off, to cease; to desist; to stop.

But when you find that vigorous heat abate, leave off, and for another summons wait.

LEAVE, verb transitive To raise. [Not used.]