Word.ws English Dictionary

leave someone at the altar

leave someone at the altar verb: to abandon a prospective spouse by deciding not to get married at the last minute.

Verb

leave someone at the altar (third-person singular simple present leaves someone at the altar, present participle leaving someone at the altar, simple past and past participle left someone at the altar)

  1. (idiomatic) To abandon a prospective spouse by deciding not to get married at the last minute.

Forms of leave someone at the altar

third-person singular presentleaves someone at the altar
present participleleaving someone at the altar
past participleleft someone at the altar
pastleft someone at the altar

Questions about leave someone at the altar

What does leave someone at the altar mean?
Leave someone at the altar means to abandon a prospective spouse by deciding not to get married at the last minute.
What part of speech is leave someone at the altar?
Leave someone at the altar is a verb.
What is the past tense of leave someone at the altar?
The past tense of leave someone at the altar is left someone at the altar.

Words near leave someone at the altar in the dictionary

  1. leave one's mark
  2. leave one's options open
  3. leave one's stamp
  4. leave out
  5. leave over
  6. leave someone at the altar
  7. leave someone cold
  8. leave someone hanging
  9. leave someone high and dry
  10. leave someone holding the baby
  11. leave someone holding the bag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leave someone at the altar (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-leave someone at the altar.wav.

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