LEAVE OFF

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does leave off mean? 

• LEAVE OFF (verb)
  The verb LEAVE OFF has 3 senses:

1. come to an end, stop or cease

2. prevent from being included or considered or accepted

3. stop using

  Familiarity information: LEAVE OFF used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEAVE OFF (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Come to an end, stop or cease

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

leave off where you started

Hypernyms (to "leave off" is one way to...):

discontinue (come to or be at an end)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Prevent from being included or considered or accepted

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

except; exclude; leave off; leave out; omit; take out

Context example:

Leave off the top piece

Hypernyms (to "leave off" is one way to...):

do away with; eliminate; extinguish; get rid of (terminate, end, or take out)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "leave off"):

elide (leave or strike out)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Stop using

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

leave off your jacket--no need to wear it here

Hypernyms (to "leave off" is one way to...):

cease; discontinue; give up; lay off; quit; stop (put an end to a state or an activity)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

You are old enough to leave off boyish tricks, and to behave better, Josephine.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

'I-n-g' spells 'ing.' Sometimes you pronounce it 'ing' and sometimes you leave off the 'g.'

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The hasty engagement she had entered into with that woman—Here, my dear madam, I was obliged to leave off abruptly, to recollect and compose myself.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It is a very fair match, as times go; and I have liked Charles Hayter all my life, and I shall not leave off now.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

They danced on till three o’clock in the morning, and then all their shoes were worn out, so that they were obliged to leave off.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The tune across the yard that seemed as if it never had left off—alas! it was the tune that never DOES leave off—was beating, softly, all the while.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Miss Crawford's enjoyment of riding was such that she did not know how to leave off.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She learnt a year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not insist on her daughters being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to leave off.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Those to her mother contained little else than that they were just returned from the library, where such and such officers had attended them, and where she had seen such beautiful ornaments as made her quite wild; that she had a new gown, or a new parasol, which she would have described more fully, but was obliged to leave off in a violent hurry, as Mrs. Forster called her, and they were going off to the camp; and from her correspondence with her sister, there was still less to be learnt—for her letters to Kitty, though rather longer, were much too full of lines under the words to be made public.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I shall leave off while I am well.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)