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say it: leev
leave is a verb and noun meaning "go away from a place". It carries 17 recorded senses.
act or be so as to become in a specified state
“The inflation left them penniless”
“The president's remarks left us speechless”
leave unchanged or undisturbed or refrain from taking
“leave it as is”
“leave the young fawn alone”
“leave the flowers that you see in the park behind”
make a possibility or provide opportunity for; permit to be attainable or cause to remain
“This leaves no room for improvement”
“The evidence allows only one conclusion”
“allow for mistakes”
“leave lots of time for the trip”
“This procedure provides for lots of leeway”
remove oneself from an association with or participation in
“She wants to leave”
“The teenager left home”
“She left her position with the Red Cross”
“He left the Senate after two terms”
“after 20 years with the same company, she pulled up stakes”
be survived by after one's death
“He left six children”
“At her death, she left behind her husband and 11 cats”
the period of time during which you are absent from work or duty
“a ten day's leave to visit his mother”
the act of departing politely
“he disliked long farewells”
“he took his leave”
“parting is such sweet sorrow”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for leave come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.