English Explanatory Dictionary

leaf

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
  2. A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
  3. Anything resembling the leaf of a plant.
  4. A sheet of a book, magazine, etc. (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf).
  5. A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
  6. One of the individual flat or curved strips of metal, typically made of spring steel, that make up a leaf spring.
  7. Tea leaves.
  8. A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
  9. A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
  10. In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
  11. The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
  12. One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.
verb
  1. To produce leaves; put forth foliage.
  2. To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves.
  3. To play a prank on someone by throwing a large clump or collection of leaves at them.
name
  1. A surname from Old English.
noun
  1. A Canadian person.
  2. A member of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, its organization, or its supporters.
  3. A model of car built by Nissan, with a name chosen for its green connotations.

Pronunciation

lēf /liːf/ en-us-leaf.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-leaf.wav

Word forms

leaf leaves leafs leafing leafed Life

Etymology

From Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“to cut off”). Cognates Cognate with Scots leaf (“leaf”), Yola laafe (“leaf”), North Frisian luuf (“leaf”), Saterland Frisian Loof (“leaf”), West Frisian leaf (“leaf”), Cimbrian loap (“leaf”), Dutch loof (“foliage”), German Laub (“leaves”), German Low German Loov (“leaf”), Luxembourgish Laf (“foliage, leaves”), Mòcheno lap (“leaf”), Vilamovian łaub, łaup, łojp (“leaf”), Danish løv (“leaf”), Faroese leyv (“leaf”), Icelandic lauf (“leaf”), Norwegian Bokmål lauv, løv (“leaf”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauv (“leaf”), Swedish löf, löv (“leaf”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍆𐍃 (laufs, “leaf”); also Irish luibh (“herb, plant”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Lithuanian lúobas (“bark; bast”), Polish łub (“bark”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”). (Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.

Synonyms

phyllon folio folium leave

Related words

foliage frond needle

Derived words

alderleaf Juneberry almond tree leaf skeletoniser moth almond tree leaf skeletonizer moth aluminium leaf aluminum leaf angle leaf apple bud and leaf mite apple leaf midge apple leaf miner arrowleaf ash-gray leaf bug ash-leaf aspen leaf blotch miner moth autumn leaf auxiliary leaf avocado leaf babyleaf banana leaf baroclinic leaf bay leaf bay-leaf beleaf belladona leaf betel leaf bible leaf big-leaf bigleaf bitter leaf bitter-leaf bitterleaf black currant leaf midge blank leaf bloodleaf blue-sided leaf frog blunt-leaf heath borrow a leaf out of someone's book branch-leaf brass leaf brightleaf broad-leaf broadleaf bronze leaf brown leaf brown leaf spot bumleaf butterleaf California single-leaf pinyon call leaf cedar leaf oil cereal leaf beetle Chinese leaf clover-leaf cloverleaf coffee leaf rust cold leaf come into leaf compound leaf copper-leaf copperleaf cord-leaf
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on L Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary