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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

leave for dead en · VERB

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (transitive) To abandon a person or other living creature that is injured or otherwise incapacitated, assuming that the death of the one abandoned will soon follow.
    • When Steele rides after them, they shoot him and leave him for dead in the desert. 2001, R. Phillip Loy, Westerns and American Culture, 1930-1955:
    • The Writer having received two wounds, is left for dead on the field 1851, Personal Adventures of an Austrian Officer in the Hungarian War of 1848 and 1849:
    • He stood in the middle of a narrow part of the road, stopped the horse, and struck Fyot with a heavy cudgel, leaving him for dead in the ditch. 1835, Anne Laura Thorold, Letters from Brussels, in the summer of 1835:
  2. (broadly, figuratively, transitive) To disregard or bypass as unimportant.
    • However, the hosts hit back and hit back hard, first replacement hooker Andrew Hore sliding over, then Williams careering out of his own half and leaving several defenders for dead before flipping the ball to Nonu to finish off a scintillating move. 2011 September 16, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: New Zealand 83-7 Japan”, in BBC Sport:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
leaves for dead Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
leaving for dead Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
left for dead Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
left for dead Tense=Past lexicographic

Translations (7)

pl pozostawiać na śmierć (to abandon considering death) · de zum Sterben zurücklassen (to abandon considering death) · cmn 見死不救 /见死不救 (to abandon considering death) · fr laisser pour mort (to abandon considering death) · cmn 置之死地 (to abandon considering death) · fi jättää kuolemaan (to abandon considering death) · pl pozostawić na śmierć (to abandon considering death)