left

The left side.

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: ←

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.

1904 March 23 [1904 March 22], Viceroy Alexieff, quotee, “Waiting for the First Collision in the Yalu Region”, in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, volume 56, number 215, St. Louis, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 2:

(geography) 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.

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.

1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:

(politics) Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.

en-adj

left (comparative more left or lefter, superlative most left or leftmost)

more left (comparative)
lefter (comparative)
most left (superlative)
leftmost (superlative)
Left (alternative)

the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

wie

west side of the body when one is facing north

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”), dialectal Dutch loof (“weak, worthless”), Low German lucht (“left”).


left

Turn left at the corner. NO! Your other left.

The East Coast of the US leans left in elections.


left

The Left left workers behind, thinking they had a winning demographic coalition. It hasn't really worked out for them yet.

(politics) The left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group.

The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul.

1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

(boxing) A punch delivered with the left fist.

(surfing) A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).

يَسَار

the ensemble of left-wing political parties


left

There's not much food left.

Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

Shepard: What's wrong with your assistant?
Dr. Warren: Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit... unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin.
Dr. Manuel: Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!
Dr. Warren: I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Eden Prime:

simple past and past participle of leave (“depart, separate from; (cause or allow to) remain”).

leave

From Middle English left, variant of laft (“remaining, left”), from Old English lǣfd, ġelǣfd, past participle of lǣfan (“to leave”). More at leave.


left

We were not left go to the beach after school except on a weekend.

simple past and past participle of leave (“permit”).

From Middle English levit, ilevet, y-levyd, from Old English ġelȳfd, ġelȳfed, past participle of Old English ġelȳfan, lȳfan (“to allow, permit”), equivalent to leave (“to give leave to, allow, grant, permit”) + -ed.


left

In durk Ich red virst mee left-vooted shoe."

1927, “ZONG OF TWI MAARKEET MOANS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 129, line 11:

In the dark I happened first on my left-footed shoe."

From Middle English left, from Old English lyft.