leave someone to their own devices
leave someone to their own devices verb: to leave alone, unsupervised, without assistance.
Verb
leave someone to their own devices (third-person singular simple present leaves someone to their own devices, present participle leaving someone to their own devices, simple past and past participle left someone to their own devices)
- to leave alone, unsupervised, without assistance.
- Left to my own devices, I'll spend hours staring into space, just thinking.
- Let's leave her to her own devices and see what she comes up with.
Forms of leave someone to their own devices
| third-person singular present | leaves someone to their own devices |
|---|---|
| present participle | leaving someone to their own devices |
| past participle | left someone to their own devices |
| past | left someone to their own devices |
Questions about leave someone to their own devices
- What does leave someone to their own devices mean?
- Leave someone to their own devices means to leave alone, unsupervised, without assistance.
- What part of speech is leave someone to their own devices?
- Leave someone to their own devices is a verb.
- What is the past tense of leave someone to their own devices?
- The past tense of leave someone to their own devices is left someone to their own devices.
Words near leave someone to their own devices in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leave someone to their own devices (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-leave to one's own devices.ogg.
Cite this entry: “leave someone to their own devices.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leave_someone_to_their_own_devices. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.