Dictionary

make like a tree and leave en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

A pun on leave (“depart”) and leave (“produce leaves”) (or its more common variant, leaf).

Meanings

1. (humorous, idiomatic) To leave, depart.
   • In Cocklecu, gender roles are reversed, to Klim's disgust. (The queen keeps a seraglio of 300 handsome men, and Klim makes like a tree and leaves for fear of being added to them.) 2013 August 29, S. Moore, The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600-1800, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 168:
   • See ya' later Pete, I'm making like a tree and leaving. 2011, P. E. Van Schaick, Greasy Village, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 82:
   • After all the needed malware files have been installed and all the necessary changes to the system have been made to facilitate malware persistency, the malware installer makes like a tree and leaves. Since the job of the malware installer is done, there is no more need for it to linger in the system. 2013, C. C. Elisan, Malware, Rootkits & Botnets (Beginner's Guide), McGraw Hill, →ISBN, page 197:

Forms

Synonyms

make like a banana and split · make like a tree · put an egg in one's shoe and beat it · make like a baby and head out