(lēv) v. left, leav·ing v.t.
1. To go or depart from; quit.
2. To allow to remain behind or continue as specified; abandon: to leave work undone; to leave a plow in a field.
3. To place or deposit so as to allow to remain behind: to leave word.
4. To cause to remain after departure, cessation, healing, etc.: The war left its mark.
5. To refer or entrust to another for doing, deciding, etc.: I leave the matter to you.
6. To sever or terminate connection, employment, etc., with: to leave a job.
7. To have as a remainder: Three minus two leaves one.
8. To have remaining after death: to leave a large family.
9. To give by will; bequeath.
10. To desist from; stop: usually with off.
—v.i.
11. To depart or go away; set out.
12. To desist; cease: with off: He left off where I began. See synonyms under ABANDON.
—to leave out To omit from consideration; fail to include. [OE læfan, lit., let remain]
—leav′er noun♦ leave, let
Leave and let, often confused, are not synonyms. Leave means to go away or depart, let to permit. Perhaps because the noun leave has “permission” as one of its meanings, popular usage endows the verb leave with the sense “permit,” and tries to make it interchangeable with let in such expressions as Let me go. But the substitution of leave for let violates established idiom, for while let can be followed by the infinitive without “to,” leave cannot: Leave it to him to decide or Leave the decision to him, but never Leave him decide. Leave me go is readily recognized as violating both sense and idiom, and is hence considered illiterate. So with Leave me be. This last is synonymous with Leave me alone, widespread in children's speech as a replacement for the standard English Let me alone, which has the idiomatic meaning “Don't bother me” or “Stop bothering me.” In this case, and in this case only, Leave it alone may be regarded as having acquired fair colloquial standing, with two reservations. It is only in the imperative that leave is here admissible as a substitute for let; in declined forms, the idiomatic sense does not carry over. They left him alone does not mean They let him alone. The second reservation follows from this. In formal English, Leave me alone means “Go away so that I may be alone.” Solitude may insure freedom from annoyance, but asking to be left alone is not the same as demanding to be let alone.

(lēv) noun
1. Permission given to do something otherwise forbidden or unlawful.
2. Liberty to go or to be absent.
3. A departure; parting.
4. Permission granted an officer of a military service or to enlisted naval personnel to be absent from duty: also leave of absence. See synonyms under PERMISSION.
—to take leave
1. To depart; go away.
2. To abandon; quit: with of: He took leave of his senses. [OE lēaf permission]

(lēv) v.i. leaved, leav·ing
To put forth leàves.