left

Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←

Adjective

  1. Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←
    • Near-synonym: port
    • The left side.

    Synonyms: sinister sinistral port

    Antonyms: right dexter dextral

  2. Anticlockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
    • The road up ahead contains a left bend.
    • Rotate the bolt to the left to loosen it.
  3. Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's left when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the north bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥲ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the left side of the river.
    • The Eiffel Tower is on the left bank of the Seine.
    • The following dispatch has been received from Viceroy Alexieff, dated Mukden, March 22: “Gen. Mitchenkow reports that on March 17 our scouts approached Anju and observed on the left bank of the Ching Chong river,...
  4. Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.
    • It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense "Left". Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T. E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived...
    • Who does not know the practical man who in his own field denounces socialism as "pernicious rot" but when he steps outside his subject spouts socialism like any left journalist. - 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals...

    Antonyms: right

Origin

From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft (“weak, clumsy, foolish”), attested in Old English lyftādl (“palsy, paralysis”), from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (“to castrate, lop off”) (compare dialectal English lib, West Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup- (“hanging limply”). Compare Scots left (“left”), North Frisian lefts, leeft, leefts (“left”), West Frisian lofts (“left”), obsolete Dutch lucht, leftsch, lefts, lefs (“left”), dialectal Dutch loof (“weak, worthless”), archaic Low German lucht (“left”).

Forms

further left farther left more left lefter furthest left farthest left most left leftmost leftest Left

Derived

aleft allemande left audience left escalefter flush left flush left and right give one's left nut go left hard-left house left left-about left arm orthodox left arm unorthodox left atrium left back left bank left bower left bracket left brain left-brainer left-click left coast left coset left-drag

Adverb

  1. On the left side.

    Antonyms: right

  2. Towards the left side.
    • Turn left at the corner. NO! Your other left.

    Antonyms: right

  3. Towards the political left.
    • The East Coast of the US leans left in elections.

    Antonyms: right

Forms

Left

Derived

left and right left turn please turn left stage left swipe left

Noun

  1. The left side or direction.

    Synonyms: 9 o'clock port

  2. The left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group.
    • The Left left workers behind, thinking they had a winning demographic coalition. It hasn't really worked out for them yet.
  3. The left hand or fist.
  4. A punch delivered with the left fist.
    • The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul. - 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:
  5. A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).

    Antonyms: right

Forms

lefts Left

Synonyms

left wing leftists

Derived

Copenhagen left dirtbag left hang a left lefty loony left Michigan left Pittsburgh left proper left top left to the left your other left

Verb form of, participle

  1. simple past and past participle of leave (“depart, separate from; (cause or allow to) remain”).
    • There's not much food left.
    • Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to...
    • Shepard: What's wrong with your assistant? Dr. Warren: Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit... unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin. Dr. Manuel: Is it madness to see the future?...

Origin

From Middle English left, variant of laft (“remaining, left”), from Old English lǣfed, ġelǣfed, past participle of lǣfan (“to leave”). More at leave.

Derived

be left at the post left-behind left-off left-over left periphery left recursion left total

Verb form of, participle

  1. simple past and past participle of leave (“permit”).
    • We were not left go to the beach after school except on a weekend.

Origin

From Middle English levit, ilevet, y-levyd, from Old English ġelȳfd, ġelȳfed, past participle of Old English ġelȳfan, lȳfan (“to allow, permit”), equivalent to leave (“to give leave to, allow, grant, permit”) + -ed.