French leave

American  

[french leev] / ˈfrɛntʃ ˈliv /

noun

1. Sometimes Offensive. a departure without saying goodbye, asking permission, or giving notice.

   During the Civil War, many men deserted or took French leave.

   Early in the wedding reception I had to take French leave to address a family crisis.

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French leave British  

noun

1. an unauthorized or unannounced absence or departure

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Etymology

Origin of French leave

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

My efforts at French leave me at once inert and exhausted, as though I’ve been dog-paddling in a pool of standing water.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 1, 2016

Spain sent Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to make the French leave Florida.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

Furious, Michelangelo took French leave of Rome, and it was seven months before he was reconciled.

From Time Magazine Archive

This time Father Claude Rains is a sort of early-bird Enoch Arden, vagabonding back to mother and the girls after 20 years of French leave just as mother is fixing to marry again.

From Time Magazine Archive

It spoils the discipline of a crew if a captain takes French leave for himself, and keeps his men dancing attendance upon him, and yet rates them when one of them similarly delays the practice.

From Boating by Woodgate, W. B.