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left

adj
/ˈlɛft/US/ˈlɛf/

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from *(s)lewp-✻
  2. derived from *luft-✻
  3. inherited from left
  4. inherited from left

Definitions

  1. Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north

    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.

  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…

    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.
  4. ›+ 12 more definitions

    1. Left-wing

      Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.

      • 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.

    2. On the left side.

    3. Towards the left side.

      • Turn left at the corner. NO! Your other left.

    4. Towards the political left.

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

    5. The left side or direction.

    6. The left-wing political parties as a group

      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.

    7. The left hand or fist.

    8. 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.

    9. A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).

    10. simple past and past participle of leave (“depart, separate from

      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 ravellings.

    11. simple past and past participle of leave (“permit”).

      • We were not left go to the beach after school except on a weekend.

    12. The political left wing seen as a whole, as distinguished from an individual left-wing…

      The political left wing seen as a whole, as distinguished from an individual left-wing political party.

      • Maybe it’s true that “the Left can’t meme,” if “the Left” refers to the earnest suburban revolutionary with an undercut and a nose ring who typically stalks your replies on X.

The neighborhood

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, left-edge deletion, left eigenvalue, left eigenvector, lefteous, leftern, left exact, left face, left field, leftfield, left fielder, left-footed, left-footer, left-half, left hand, left-hand, left-handed · +87 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at left. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01left02forward03situated04embedded05buried06grave07burial08remains

A definitional loop anchored at left. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at left

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA