leave off

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

leave off (third-person singular simple present leaves off, present participle leaving off, simple past and past participle left off)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To omit.
2. (informal) To desist; to cease.

   Synonyms: let off, let up

   Leave off hitting him!

3. (intransitive) To stop with a view to resuming at a later point.

   We will now continue where the other team left off.

   • 2012 July 18, Scott Tobias, “The Dark Knight Rises”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     Picking up eight years after The Dark Knight left off, the film finds Gotham enjoying a tenuous peace based on Harvey Dent’s moral ideals rather than the ugly truth of his demise.

   • 2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC‎^[2]:

     The plot picks up where the last film left off. The High Table, the organisation that controls crime around the world, has a multi-million-dollar contract out on Wick, who killed a High Table member.

Synonyms

• (omit): exclude, miss off; see also Thesaurus:omit
• (desist): break off, have done with; see also Thesaurus:desist
• (stop with a view to resuming): pause, take a break

Translations

to desist

• Esperanto: ĉesi (eo)
• German: aufhören (de)
• Maori: kātirawhe, waiho atu