Word.ws English Dictionary

leaving much to be desired

leaving much to be desired is the present participle and gerund of leave much to be desired.

Meaning of leave much 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

Questions about leaving much to be desired

What is leaving much to be desired the present participle and gerund of?
Leaving much to be desired is the present participle and gerund of leave much to be desired.

Words near leaving much to be desired in the dictionary

  1. leaving it alone
  2. leaving it at that
  3. leaving it be
  4. leaving it out
  5. leaving little to the imagination
  6. leaving much to be desired
  7. leaving no crumbs
  8. leaving no stone unturned
  9. leaving no trace
  10. leaving off
  11. leaving on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaving much to be desired (page history and authors); 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: “leaving much to be desired.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leaving_much_to_be_desired. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.