Word.ws English Dictionary

leave much to be desired

leave much to be desired verb: synonym of leave a lot to be desired.

Verb

leave much to be desired (third-person singular simple present leaves much to be desired, present participle leaving much to be desired, simple past and past participle left much to be desired)

  1. Synonym of leave a lot to be desired.
    • Southgate's side kept their nerve and discipline in the unsettling, intimidating surroundings of Budapest, with the behaviour of Hungary's fans leaving much to be desired, to turn up the heat and punish their opponents ruthlessly once they had gone ahead.2021 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Hungary 0-4 England”, in BBC

Synonyms of leave much to be desired

Forms of leave much to be desired

third-person singular presentleaves much to be desired
present participleleaving much to be desired
past participleleft much to be desired
pastleft much to be desired

Questions about leave much to be desired

What does leave much to be desired mean?
Leave much to be desired means synonym of leave a lot to be desired.
What part of speech is leave much to be desired?
Leave much to be desired is a verb.
What is the past tense of leave much to be desired?
The past tense of leave much to be desired is left much to be desired.

Words near leave much to be desired in the dictionary

  1. leave it at that
  2. leave it be
  3. leave it out
  4. leave little to the imagination
  5. leave me alone
  6. leave much to be desired
  7. leave no crumbs
  8. leave no stone unturned
  9. leave no trace
  10. leave nothing in the tank
  11. leave of absence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leave much 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 much to be desired.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leave_much_to_be_desired. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.