French leave

1 8.9

Going away from a place without telling or asking anyone

idiom

: salida francesa

Set to take "French leave"—if he only had somewhere to go—D'Cey glanced at the doorway leading to the courtyard.
take French leave

Examples

She took French leave from the party without saying goodbye to anyone.
After realizing he would be late, he decided to take French leave and slip out unnoticed.
Feeling overwhelmed at work, he abruptly took French leave to avoid the stress.

Synonyms

desertion

vsFrench leave

20 6.2

Leaving someone, a place, or a duty when you should stay to help

is a sudden unauthorized exit that is not necessarily long-term abandonment

absence without leave

vsFrench leave

Formal

7.3

A person who is away from military duty without permission

is an abrupt unannounced departure not tied to official duty

Antonyms

to stay

∞ 1.0

To remain in one place and not leave

Surface Forms

French leave singular

French leaves plural

Morphology

French + leave

The sense ‘to depart without permission or notice’ cannot be derived from the literal constituents: 'French' (relating to France) and 'leave' (departure/permission). The phrase is historically and culturally idiomatic, so a B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably infer the idiomatic meaning; cross-linguistic equivalents exist but the logic is not transparently compositional.

Etymology

French leave may come from an old joke: people said that the French would quietly take leave from a party without saying goodbye. That's why the phrase now means 'to leave without permission or notice'.