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Glite Dictionary
to leave out

to leave out

312 2.3
To not include someone or something
  • phrasal verb
  • /liːv aʊt/
translation icon : omitir
  • If you leave out this section from your report, it will be incomplete.
  • leave out key information
  • leave out important details
  • leave out stuff

And will that leave men out in the dark, in the cold?

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Examples

  • And I haven't, I've left out a key piece of information.

  • Okay, you can leave out the year.

    Picture Perfect (1997)

  • Can I just leave her out there in the world alone?

  • OK, so we're going to leave that case out for the time being.

  • Did I leave anything out?

    Twins (1988)

  • A writer has to be able to leave out whatever she wants.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Were there things that you felt you left out or maybe you shouldn't have put in?

    Film Courage

  • Are music educators comfortable with the fact that we are leaving students out of our programs?

    Academic text (2015)

  • All the reasons she had given were true, but she had left out the main one.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Leave me out of your puns.

    The Lost City (2005)

Synonyms

to drop
vsto leave out
∞ 3.1

To leave out a sound or part of a word

is the general act of not including rather than physical removal
to take out
vsto leave out
948 1.9

To remove something from a place or container

is the nonremoval idea of not including rather than active removal
to exclude
vsto leave out
338 3.0

To keep someone or something out so they are not part of something

is broader meaning simply not including without active keeping out
to omit
vsto leave out
66 3.4

Leave out something, for example a name, on purpose or by accident

is the general term for not including without stressing intent
to leave off
vsto leave out
12 4.4

Not include someone or something in a list

is the usual phrase for not including rather than stressing deliberate exclusion
to pretermit
vsto leave out
  • Archaic
9.9

To leave something out on purpose

is the neutral idea of not including without implying neglect
to dislimn
vsto leave out
  • Archaic
9.9

To leave out details from a story or description

is the broader idea of not including not limited to descriptions

Antonyms

to include
∞ 1.0

To make a person or thing part of something larger

to add
∞ 1.0

Include something extra to make something larger or better

How Included

to include
∞ 1.0
to leave out
312 2.3
to exclude
338 3.0
to rule out
246 3.5

Surface Forms

leave out infinitive
leaving out present participle
leaves out third person singular
left out past
left out past participle

Morphology

leave + out

The meaning 'to not include/omit' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'leave' (to abandon/allow something to remain) with 'out' (excluded), so a learner who knows both words can infer the sense. This verb+particle pattern is a standard, cross-linguistically common compositional construction in English, making it immediately comprehensible at B1.

Etymology

The phrasal verb leave out comes from the simple idea of leaving something outside: to leave it out of the room, list, or recipe. That's why it means 'not include'.