Wiktionary

leaf

See also: Leaf

English

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A leaf
 
Leaves (plural form)

Etymology

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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- (“leaf, rind”)[1]

See also West Frisian leaf, Low German Loov, Dutch loof, German Laub, Danish løv, Swedish löv, Norwegian Nynorsk lauv, Icelandic lauf; also Irish luibh (“herb”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Lithuanian lúoba (“bark”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Latvian luba (“plank, board”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”).

(Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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leaf (countable and uncountable, plural leaves)

  1. The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
    • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:
      Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
  2. (botany) 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.
  5. (publishing, bookbinding, advertising) A sheet of a book, magazine, etc. (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf).
    Hyponyms: flyleaf, looseleaf
    • 1900, Profitable Advertising, volume 10, number 2, page 893:
      Heretofore advertisers have had to buy and pay for a leaf — two pages.
  6. A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
    Synonyms: folio, folium
    gold leaf
  7. One of the individual flat or curved strips of metal, typically made of spring steel, that make up a leaf spring.
    • 1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 52:
      Lumbering down a precipitous "slideway," the Thornycroft broke two main leaves in the back spring[.]
  8. (in the plural) Tea leaves.
  9. A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
  11. (plural leaves or leafs) A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
    Hyponym: doorleaf
    Meronym: stile
    The train car has one single-leaf and two double-leaf doors per side.
    • 1914, Department of Bridges, City of New York, Report, page 90:
      The bridge shear locks were repaired and the long ends of the shear locks shortened about two inches to eliminate butting of the bridge leafs against each other.
    • 1992 July 21, William R. Kennedy, John M. Kennedy, Power mine door system‎[1], US Patent 5,222,838:
      It will be noted that the pivotal mounting of the cylinders is such that the cylinders have their greatest leverage (i.e., exert the greatest door-opening force) when the door leafs 24, 28 are closed because the cylinders are generally perpendicular to the closed leafs. This is desirable because the load on the leafs is the greatest when they are closed due to air pressure. As the leafs begin to open and this air pressure decreases, the opening force exerted by the cylinders on the door leafs decreases and the opening speed of the leafs increases.
    • 1993, Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1994: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 136:
      THE NTSB RECOMMENDS THAT THE U.S. COAST GUARD: REQUIRE OWNERS/OPERATORS OF BASCULE BRIDGES TO INSTALL CAUTION LIGHTS AND DAYLIGHT MARKINGS AT ELEVATION POINTS ON BRIDGE LEAFS WHERE THEY PROTRUDE OVER NAVIGABLE CHANNELS TO IDEN TIFY[sic] TO MARINERS THE POINT AT WHICH FULL SKYWARD CHANNEL CLEARANCE IS NOT AVAILABLE TO TRANSITING VESSELS: THE LIGHTS SHOULD ACTIVATE WHEN THE BRIDGELEAFS ARE IN THE NORMAL FULLY OPEN POSITION. […] THE NTSB RECOMMENDS THAT THE U.S. COAST GUARD: REQUIRE THAT BRIDGE OWNERS/OPERATORS PROVIDE IN BASCULE BRIDGE PERMIT APPLICATIONS THE ANGLE OF THE BRIDGELEAF(S). THE MAXIMUM VERTICAL CLEARANCE AT THE FENDERS AND AT THE BRIDGELEAF ENDS, AND THE EXTENT OF HORIZONTAL CHANNEL CLEARANCE OVER WHICH FULL SKYWARD CLEARANCE IS AVAILABLE WHEN THE BRIDGE LEAFS ARE IN THE FULLY OPEN POSITION.
    • 1993, Realty and Building, page 20:
      The four separate segments of the movable bridge span, known as bridge leafs, were alternately rehabilitated while maintaining upper-level roadway and pedestrian traffic on one-half of the bridge and waterway traffic on one-half of the river channel.
    • 1993, The Americana Annual: An Encyclopedia of Current Events, Grolier, →ISBN, →ISSN, →LCCN, page 224:
      The hydraulic system lifts and rotates two 413-ft (126-m) bridge leafs, each weighing 7,500 tons, in just four minutes.
    • 1996, Gerard R. Wolfe, Chicago in and Around the Loop: Walking Tours of Architecture and History, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 150:
      Note the Art Deco-style sculptures on the wall of the bridge house showing a ship passing under the raised bridge leafs.
    • 2010, James Newport-Chiakulas, Bridges to Justice: Love, Murder, & Politics in Chicago, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 55:
      Like I’ve said, John, you’ve got to get the two bridge leafs to come down very slowly to a complete stop in order to trigger the tongue locks. This is what holds the two leafs of the bridge firmly in place. Otherwise, the bridge leafs will start bouncing, and once they start bouncing, you’ll never stop them from goin’ straight up in the air.
  12. (computing, mathematics) In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
    • 2011, John Mongan, Noah Kindler, Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed:
      The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).
  13. The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
  14. One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.
  15. (slang, uncountable) Cannabis.
  16. (4chan, Internet slang, humorous, sometimes pejorative, plural leafs) A Canadian person.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Tok Pisin: lip

Translations

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Verb

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leaf (third-person singular simple present leafs, present participle leafing, simple past and past participle leafed)

  1. (intransitive) To produce leaves; put forth foliage.
    • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 164:
      Then flowered the mead, then leafed all
      'Twas caused by the runic lay.
  2. (transitive) To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves.
    The lettuce in our burgers is 100% hand-leafed.
  3. (informal, transitive, uncommon) To play a prank on someone by throwing a large clump or collection of leaves at them.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 337

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Old English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą. Cognate with Old Saxon lōf, Old High German loub, Old Norse lauf, Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍆𐍃 (laufs).

Noun

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lēaf n

  1. leaf
  2. page
Declension
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Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative lēaf lēaf
accusative lēaf lēaf
genitive lēafes lēafa
dative lēafe lēafum
Descendants
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Etymology 2

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From Proto-West Germanic *laubu. Cognate with Old High German *louba (German Laube).

Alternative forms

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Noun

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lēaf f

  1. permission
Declension
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Strong ō-stem:

singular plural
nominative lēaf lēafa, lēafe
accusative lēafe lēafa, lēafe
genitive lēafe lēafa
dative lēafe lēafum
Descendants
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Scots

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Etymology

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From Middle English leef, lefe, lef, from Old English lēaf.

Noun

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leaf (plural leafs)

  1. Alternative form of leif (“leaf”)

West Frisian

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Old Frisian lāf.

Noun

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leaf n (plural leaven, diminutive leafke)

  1. leaf, especially a long leaf, like a blade of grass
Further reading
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  • “leaf (IV)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

Etymology 2

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From Old Frisian liāf.

Adjective

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leaf

  1. friendly, kind, cordial
Inflection
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Inflection of leaf
uninflected leaf
inflected leave
comparative leaver
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial leaf leaver it leafst
it leafste
indefinite c. sing. leave leavere leafste
n. sing. leaf leaver leafste
plural leave leavere leafste
definite leave leavere leafste
partitive leafs leavers —
Derived terms
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Further reading
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  • “leaf (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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