See leave something to be desired in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for leave something to be desired meaning in English (2.4kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "leaves something to be desired",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "leaving something to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "left something to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "left something to be desired",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "leave<,,left> something to be desired"
},
"expansion": "leave something to be desired (third-person singular simple present leaves something to be desired, present participle leaving something to be desired, simple past and past participle left something to be desired)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1835, An essay on the use of chlorurets of oxide of sodium and of lime, page 35",
"text": "These instructions are too short not to leave something to be desired under certain circumstances; but the knowledge of veterinary surgeons will supply whatever may be incomplete[…]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1921, Foxes from Northern Argentina, page 386",
"text": "[…]the drawings of the bats, though very artistic, leave something to be desired as regards detail.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1951 November, R. K. Kirkland, “The Wimbledon and West Croydon Line of the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 726",
"text": "Nevertheless, the trains are well patronised, for road services in the district leave something to be desired.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Slow train to Guantanamo : a rail odyssey through Cuba in the last days of the Castros, page 125",
"text": "To say Cuban train toilets leave something to be desired would not just be an understatement, it would suggest the person speaking inhabited an altogether alien reality.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"to be insufficient in some aspect."
],
"id": "en-leave_something_to_be_desired-en-verb-JA8cl9wD",
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) to be insufficient in some aspect."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "leave a lot to be desired"
},
{
"word": "leave much to be desired"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/liːv ˈsʌmθɪŋ tu biː dɪˈzaɪə(ɹ)d/"
}
],
"word": "leave something to be desired"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "leaves something to be desired",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "leaving something to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "left something to be desired",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "left something to be desired",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "leave<,,left> something to be desired"
},
"expansion": "leave something to be desired (third-person singular simple present leaves something to be desired, present participle leaving something to be desired, simple past and past participle left something to be desired)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "leave a lot to be desired"
},
{
"word": "leave much to be desired"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with IPA pronunciation",
"English terms with quotations",
"English verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1835, An essay on the use of chlorurets of oxide of sodium and of lime, page 35",
"text": "These instructions are too short not to leave something to be desired under certain circumstances; but the knowledge of veterinary surgeons will supply whatever may be incomplete[…]",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1921, Foxes from Northern Argentina, page 386",
"text": "[…]the drawings of the bats, though very artistic, leave something to be desired as regards detail.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1951 November, R. K. Kirkland, “The Wimbledon and West Croydon Line of the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 726",
"text": "Nevertheless, the trains are well patronised, for road services in the district leave something to be desired.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Slow train to Guantanamo : a rail odyssey through Cuba in the last days of the Castros, page 125",
"text": "To say Cuban train toilets leave something to be desired would not just be an understatement, it would suggest the person speaking inhabited an altogether alien reality.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"to be insufficient in some aspect."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) to be insufficient in some aspect."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/liːv ˈsʌmθɪŋ tu biː dɪˈzaɪə(ɹ)d/"
}
],
"word": "leave something to be desired"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.