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compassionate leave

American  
[kuhm-pash-uhn-it leev] / kəmˈpæʃ ən ɪt ˈliv /

noun

  • compassionate leaves
    plural
  1. Chiefly British. time off from work, or out of prison, granted to someone because of a death or health crisis in their family.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Instead it was Konate who rounded off the scoring in his first match since returning from compassionate leave after the death of his father.

From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026

Konate had missed Liverpool's three previous matches after being allowed compassionate leave.

From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026

Speaker Nelly Mutti initially granted Ms Lungu 14 days of compassionate leave to mourn her father and return to parliament when it resumed in September.

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025

Prisoners can be temporarily released for a number of reasons including compassionate leave or as part of rehabilitation and release planning under a range of schemes including home leave.

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2023

Stokes has had a difficult few years, first taking compassionate leave from cricket in 2020 to be with his father Ged, who died later that year from brain cancer.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2022

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