Word.ws English Dictionary

left something to be desired

left something to be desired is the simple past and past participle of leave something to be desired.

Meaning of leave something to be desired

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) to be insufficient in some aspect.
    • These instructions are too short not to leave something to be desired under certain circumstances; but the knowledge of veterinary surgeons will supply whatever may be incomplete[…]1835, An essay on the use of chlorurets of oxide of sodium and of lime, page 35

Questions about left something to be desired

What is left something to be desired the simple past and past participle of?
Left something to be desired is the simple past and past participle of leave something to be desired.

Words near left something to be desired in the dictionary

  1. left someone on read
  2. left someone on seen
  3. left someone out in the cold
  4. left someone to their fate
  5. left someone to their own devices
  6. left something to be desired
  7. left the ball in someone's court
  8. left the chat
  9. left the door open
  10. left the nest
  11. left things alone

Source and license

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