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.