leave a lot to be desired
leave a lot to be desired verb: to be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability.
Verb
leave a lot to be desired (third-person singular simple present leaves a lot to be desired, present participle leaving a lot to be desired, simple past and past participle left a lot to be desired)
- To be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability.
- The three cylinders of these engines are 18½ in. dia. by 26 in. stroke; and as the three piston valves were all between the frames, it resulted in the monoblock casting being weak, so far as the centre cylinder was concerned, with the result that the life of these castings left a good deal to be...1944 November and December, “Conversion of L.N.E.R. "B16" Class 4-6-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 349
Forms of leave a lot to be desired
| third-person singular present | leaves a lot to be desired |
|---|---|
| present participle | leaving a lot to be desired |
| past participle | left a lot to be desired |
| past | left a lot to be desired |
| alternative form | leave much to be desired |
Questions about leave a lot to be desired
- What does leave a lot to be desired mean?
- Leave a lot to be desired means to be unsatisfactory; to fail to meet minimal standards of acceptability.
- What part of speech is leave a lot to be desired?
- Leave a lot to be desired is a verb.
- What is the past tense of leave a lot to be desired?
- The past tense of leave a lot to be desired is left a lot to be desired.
Words near leave a lot to be desired in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leave a lot to be desired (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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Cite this entry: “leave a lot to be desired.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leave_a_lot_to_be_desired. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.