left
Part of speech: adj
adv
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: boxing
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Etymology: From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft (“weak, clumsy, foolish”), attested in Old English lyftādl (“palsy, paralysis”), from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (“to castrate, lop off”) (compare dialectal English lib, West Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup- (“hanging limply”). Compare Scots left (“left”), North Frisian lefts, leeft, leefts (“left”), West Frisian lofts (“left”), obsolete Dutch lucht, leftsch, lefts, lefs (“left”), dialectal Dutch loof (“weak, worthless”), archaic Low German lucht (“left”).
Inflected forms:
form: further left
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: farther left
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more left
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: lefter
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: furthest left
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: farthest left
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most left
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: leftmost
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: leftest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: Left
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: Left
pos: adv
tags: alternative
form: lefts
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: Left
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←
pos: adj
examples: Near-synonym: port
The left side.
gloss: Anticlockwise, particularly when describing a change in direction or orientation.
pos: adj
examples: The road up ahead contains a left bend.
Rotate the bolt to the left to loosen it.
gloss: Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's left when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the north bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥲ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the left side of the river.
pos: adj
examples: The Eiffel Tower is on the left bank of the Seine.
The following dispatch has been received from Viceroy Alexieff, dated Mukden, March 22:
“Gen. Mitchenkow reports that on March 17 our scouts approached Anju and observed on the left bank of the Ching Chong river, opposite Anju, retrenchments made by the enemy.
gloss: Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.
pos: adj
examples: It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense "Left". Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T. E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order.
Who does not know the practical man who in his own field denounces socialism as "pernicious rot" but when he steps outside his subject spouts socialism like any left journalist.
gloss: On the left side.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Towards the left side.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Turn left at the corner. NO! Your other left.
gloss: Towards the political left.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: The East Coast of the US leans left in elections.
gloss: The left side or direction.
pos: noun
gloss: The left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group.
pos: noun
examples: The Left left workers behind, thinking they had a winning demographic coalition. It hasn't really worked out for them yet.
gloss: The left hand or fist.
pos: noun
gloss: A punch delivered with the left fist.
pos: noun
examples: The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul.
gloss: A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).
pos: noun
Derived words: aleft
allemande left
audience left
escalefter
flush left
flush left and right
give one's left nut
go left
hard-left
house left
left-about
left arm orthodox
left arm unorthodox
left atrium
left back
left bank
left bower
left bracket
left brain
left-brainer
left-click
left coast
left coset
left-drag
left-edge deletion
left eigenvalue
left eigenvector
lefteous
leftern
left exact
left face
left field
leftfield
left fielder
left-footed
left-footer
left-half
left hand
left-hand
left-handed
lefthanded
left hook
left hooker
left ideal
left identity
leftie
left inverse
left join
left-justified
left lane camper
left lane hog
left lane hogger
left lane hugger
left lateral
left main
leftmost
left nullspace
left-of-centre
left outer join
left-recursive
left shift
left-to-right
left turn
left ventricle
left ventricular ejection time
leftward
leftwards
left wing
leftwise
over the left
over the left shoulder
right and left
right-to-left
the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing
two left feet
two left hands
alternative left
alt-left
antileft
centre-left
far-left
far left
hard left
left anarchism
left anarchist
leftard
Leftbook
left communism
left communist
leftish
leftism
leftist
left-leaning
left-libertarian
left-libertarianism
leftneck
leftness
leftoid
leftosphere
Leftpondia
LeftTube
leftugee
lefturd
Leftwaffe
left-wing
Lexit
New Left
post-left
regressive left
regressive leftism
uberleft
ultraleft
dirtbag left
left and right
please turn left
stage left
swipe left
Copenhagen left
hang a left
lefty
loony left
Michigan left
Pittsburgh left
proper left
top left
to the left
your other left
Translations: