to leave much to the imagination
1
6.1
- idiom
:
dejar mucho a la imaginación
- That doesn't leave much to the imagination, now does it?
Examples
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Her vague answers during the interview leave much to the imagination about her true intentions.
-
Site leaves much to the imagination.
Blog text (29) -
Can a poem not leave much to the imagination?
Blog text (32) -
It's very, very sexy, but it doesn't leave much to the imagination, you know?
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Well, we'll have an adventure somewhere tropical with those native ladies whose outfits don't leave much to the imagination.
-
His sparse account of the attacks and his escapes left much to the imagination, but Picard had no trouble visualizing an entire society suddenly gone as crazy as the pilots who had attacked the Enterprise earlier.
Fiction book (1992) -
The movie's plot leaves much to the imagination, inviting viewers to speculate about the characters' motives.
-
Although the painting is beautiful, it leaves much to the imagination, encouraging different interpretations from the viewers.
Antonyms
How Revealing
- Informal
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7.5
∞
2.3
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6.1
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
leave + much + to + the + imagination
The phrase combines the literal meanings of 'leave' and 'imagination' so a learner can infer that something is being left for the mind to fill in; however, the sense of ‘not revealing details’ is a metaphorical extension of those parts and depends on knowing the construction 'leave X to Y'. While cross-linguistic equivalents exist, the pragmatic nuance (implying omission or suggestiveness) may not be fully predictable to an average B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Leave much to the imagination paints a simple picture: imagine a painter who only draws a few lines and leaves empty space so the person looking can use their imagination to finish the scene. That's why it means 'not revealing all details' or 'allowing people to imagine'.