French leave

American

[french leev] / ˈfrɛntʃ ˈliv /

noun

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.

French leave British

noun

an unauthorized or unannounced absence or departure

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of French leave

First recorded in 1765–75

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:

French leave

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

They had hardly expected the predawn arrival; but then, they had hardly expected their President to stir up such a fuss in Canada that he would have to take French leave and hurry home.

From Time Magazine Archive

The colonel is on French leave from Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

From Time Magazine Archive

But a gloomy uneasiness which I had brought with me, would not yield to the good wine and tolerable humor which seasoned the bacchanal; so I seized a favorable moment and took French leave.

From A Divided Heart and Other Stories by Heyse, Paul

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023