Word.ws English Dictionary

by your leave

by your leave prepositional phrase: with your permission.

Prepositional phrase

  1. With your permission.
    • Sir I weare my weapon for mine owne defence,
      And by your leaue will weare it yet a while.1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act III
    • Miſtris Ford, by my troth you are very wel met: / by your leaue good Miſtris.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Noun

by your leave (plural by your leaves)

  1. Request for permission.
    • The natives have gathered on the top of every grave mound near by and though many resent the riding over their fields without a so much as a 'By your leave' […]1897, Shanghai Mercury, Shanghai by Night and Day: Illustrated by 23 Reproductions from Photographs. Vol. I.
    • He picked flowers without so much as a 'by your leave.'1946, Konstantin Trenev, In a Cossack Village, and Other Stories

Forms of by your leave

pluralby your leaves
alternative formby-your-leave

Questions about by your leave

What does by your leave mean?
By your leave means with your permission.
What part of speech is by your leave?
By your leave can be a prepositional phrase or a noun.

Words near by your leave in the dictionary

  1. by vice of
  2. by virtue of
  3. by way of
  4. by way of example
  5. by wire
  6. by your leave
  7. by your leaves
  8. by'm-by
  9. by'r
  10. by'r lady
  11. by't

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: by your leave (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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