Part 632

1 Sam. xx. 6.

No friend has leave to bear away the dead.

Dryden.

2. The act of leaving or departing; a formal parting; a leaving; farewell; adieu; -- used chiefly in the phrase, to take leave, i. e., literally, to take permission to go.

A double blessing is a'double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Shak.

And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren.

Acts xviii. 18.

French leave. See under French.

Syn. -- See Liberty.

Leave, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Left (lft); p. pr. & vb. n. Leaving.] [OE. leven, AS. l&?;fan, fr. lf remnant, heritage; akin to lifian, libban, to live, orig., to remain; cf. belfan to remain, G. bleiben, Goth. bileiban. √119. See Live, v.] 1. To withdraw one's self from; to go away from; to depart from; as, to leave the house.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.

Gen. ii. 24.

2. To let remain unremoved or undone; to let stay or continue, in distinction from what is removed or changed.

If grape gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes ?

Jer. xlix. 9.

These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Matt. xxiii. 23.

Besides it leaveth a suspicion, as if more might be said than is expressed.

Bacon.

3. To cease from; to desist from; to abstain from.

Now leave complaining and begin your tea.

Pope.

4. To desert; to abandon; to forsake; hence, to give up; to relinquish.

Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

Mark x. 28.

The heresies that men do leave.

Shak.